My Brother's Deeper

So many phases and shades of being a parent. We talk about some of them here, weaving in a story from the bible about Noah and his son, Hamm post-flood, realizing being a parent never gets any easier. 

The Summer of 89' Tim Burton's Batman was released. We were in Dallas, Tx, visiting our father. We dig through our memories again and follow the ripples of this special film and that fateful summer. 

We're back, after a bit of a break, to talk about how women have impacted our lives.  In the past we've talked about our mother and father and even ourselves. But here, we take some time to explore how we've been encouraged and changed by the women in our lives. Along the way we talk about gender, and bodies that have choices, and this difficult world men have built for women. 

Just when we thought we were out, it pulls us back in.  Most of us just want it to be over. It's been a long and arduous road and navigating Covid-19 hasn't been easy. Face-masks and social distancing has taken it's toll on the collective masses. We welcome another voice into our mix, and discuss the Delta variant and the woes that have come with it physically and politically, and hope that we're near the end.     

We continue our discussion on the Tower of Babel with special guest, Kathy Wick. There are just too many layers to sift through in this tale of an ancient skyscraper to the heavens. Too many questions to be answered. Like whether God's dispersal of language led to more diversity or just the stamping out of individualism. And how does that reflect in our art. Join us as we add another voice into our cacophony for the first time.   

Communication is key. It's a subject that seems to keep rearing its head. So much so, it almost feels as though we're harping on it with questions not easily answered.  Questions like, how can we truly understand each other if we're not speaking the same language? Will we truly ever know what's in someone else's heart and mind? The story of the Tower of Babel may hold the keys to all these questions. Maybe, just maybe, we can look back and decipher the clues to communication.     

We seem at the edge of ease here. Not so much wrestling with ourselves or our pasts but in a place of cool contemplation. In a place where we can discuss the nature of communication and change.  Because our lives are mostly these two things. Two things that we haven't quite mastered and haven't quite understood fully.  But we're both thankful to have this tool to dig away at the things that vex us in this chaotic world. 

We finally arrive at ourselves. After talking about our parents, we thought it only fair to turn the lens (or microphone) on one another, to see just how we got here. It proves harder than you would imagine to go inward into one's self. To really scratch the walls the ego builds for coping with the world.  To get a view of one's self as other's do can be a jarring thing. But that's what we're here as brothers to do. Peel back the layers. 

We talk about the most infamous of brothers, Cain and Abel. Most of us know the the story in which murder is introduced into the world. That one brother slew the other.  But what do we really know about these brothers and what led to this dark and fateful outcome? Why did God favor one more than the other? And why was killing your own brother the answer? Of course, we may never know all the answers; but we try. Because that's what we do. Try to understand the world around us. 

Of course, we learn things from our parents. But what are those things besides walking and talking and feeding ourselves?  The broad personality traits, yes, we know those well. You got your Dad's sense of humor and your Mom's humility. Sure.  Have you ever gone deeper with a fine-tooth comb? What have you really learned from those that brought you into this world? There's always something you take for granted. 

What is it to be a man? We find that our father more than likely struggled with this conundrum just as much as we do. And how do we define him as a man and a father? More importantly, how did he define himself in a life cut-off too soon by sickness and death. Answers to these questions may never come to light. But we do find a little clarity and ease in knowing that the man we knew as father did his best and that's all he ever owed us.   

It's been over twenty years since our father passed away. And we can feel time's puzzling elasticity. To put a finger on a man's short life comes none too easy.    We start at the beginning, as we always do. Back to Bastrop and it's pulpy monotony. But back maybe even further to mysterious leavings in Mississippi.    To a man that grew up only wanting to tell jokes and draw. A life-long passion that slipped sometimes into volatile ways and addictions. This is the man we knew as our father. 

Abraham is the father of three of the most well known religions in the world. Yet, it's hard to reconcile the lengths he had to go to get where God needed him.    We use Soren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling to dissect Abraham's inner life and better understand the man's place in the cosmic scheme of things.    Along the way we take tangential walks among our own equally prophetic and mundane dreams and ponder their meanings and come to a place of contentment with Abraham's decision. 

Having put the subject of our Mom to rest in the last episode, there were still a few things nagging at us. Well, one of us happened to be on the road to ease the lingering uneasiness.  And there were some tough things learned and some even more enigmatic feelings that followed.  We think we can look back from where we are in the world and see the string that goes all the way back to the beginning and find our way home. But sometimes it knots and frays and the past is unclear. Such is life in the present. Unraveling strings to better see ourselves and the ties that bind.     

We conclude our journey along the meandering path we've taken with our mother over the years. Often times it was exactly what one would think. And often times it wasn't. It was unique to say the least. For us, anyway. For two boys who grew up in small-town Louisiana.  So, at the end of this excavation, we come to a realization that our mother is a person with wrongs and rights in her, just trying to get by. Like all of us.    https://youtu.be/ZY6HgFyoupw https://youtu.be/LhH3d37OYyk https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B008EGV4BQ&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_-u6-EbX00A7B6  

Finally. We talk about our Mother.  We recount her early upbringing in Peru and her coming of age in New Jersey.  We talk about how she met our father in the Army and what Bastrop, LA was like for her as a Yankee in Confederate land.  We talk about her second marriage and how much happiness that brought our family before the uprooting begins.    https://youtu.be/1_I4WgBfETc https://youtu.be/x4lXnLJ_gZg  https://youtu.be/lHdXQAQHjd8     

We conclude our ruminations on being separated in so many forms and instances.  We talk about coming back to Louisiana in our late teens and what it was like to cut the strings of parental control, as we entered two different rites of passages.  And we come full circle in our own relationship as brothers.    Below are some links to a few things we mentioned in the pod.   https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/17809/west_coast_avengers_1985_67 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrb4MsD0zdw    

Rolling along memory lane again.  This time with an intent to draw parallels from past separations to our time now living in a pandemic.  We've all been asked to isolate. Separate from each other. It's been hard for a lot of us, to learn how to live a new way. But there are places in our past that we can draw from and remember that this too shall pass. 

We remember.  We recall our first memories and what it was like to grow up in small-town Louisiana. Where the weather is muggy and the recollection just as cloying.  We discuss religion and how the church molded us, or bored us, in those first days of spiritual and cultural awakenings. Welcome to the very first episode of My Brother's Deeper.