Very recently I had the pleasure to spend a lot of time with my younger brother. Siblings are pretty cool and I'm lucky to have two really great ones. We're a little more grown-up now–a little–and it's validating to come to know one another as we make our way through life, seeing who we are becoming and how that relates to our own experiences and perceptions.
Today I had an experience in my current life–in Japan, at HPAC–that made me remember an earlier experience I had with my brother when we were children. Before we thought it was a good idea to take overnight trains in Thailand and jump off boats in deep water, one Christmas long ago, we decided that we really wanted a dog. We figured a dog would make our parents really happy, too, so we went to the pet store and bought lots of dog things with our combined saved money. We even chose the poor canine that we had planned to buy two days before Christmas, thinking we would hide him in our room before the big surprise on Christmas morning. What could go wrong?
Somehow they found out (I think it was David's fault). And luckily so. It would have been a surprise for sure and I don't think in the way that we would have hoped. Our parents intervened, lovingly, and we, being the good and obedient children that we were, accepted, though not without heavy hearts. A year or two later, our parents decided we should get a dog. She wasn't wrapped in a Christmas box, and they were the ones driving the car to and from the shelter.
Sometimes things don't quite work out as planned, but that doesn't mean that they won't happen. How many more fun ideas can we have? How many more will go awry and find themselves again, in some other form?
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