Purpse VI: Brother

(Another in our continuing series of "Let's Make a New Life", based on Craft the Life You Want: Creating a Blueprint for Your Future at artofmanliness.com. Today's exercise, based on prioritization of roles, is to define a purpose for each role).

Today's purpose: Brother.

Sigh. This one is even more tenuous that that of "son" yesterday.

The fact remains that I am a brother to my sister and an uncle to my niece and nephew. The reality is, this impacts my life very little from day to day.

As noted yesterday, the role of brother is one that can diminish - more so now than ever, with not only the advent of distance but the advent of children and families which keep us busy with our own issues. Add to this if one's family are not great phone or e-mail conversationalists, and suddenly there is a communication silence.

Not that that is bad - after all, we want to see our relatives spending time with the ones that immediately need them, not just catering to a perceived role that has morphed but we continue to live. Still, how does one fill the role.

The eulogy? Simple: "TB was a good brother, present and supportive."

I think that "Brother" becomes a great deal like support role (sort of like son, I suppose) - that when the need is there, you're there; when not, you keep the lines of communication open.

Can I do more to keep the lines of communication open? Sure. I'd be lying to say my communication skills and initiatives are any better than most people's - we talk to those to whom we make time to talk.

But other than that, it's wait - and prepare one's self against the day that the need will come.