thoughtlife: sappy

I got an invitation from my stepbrother to attend his commencement day at Harvard this coming June. The trip would involve not just the graduation ceremony but explorations of Boston and the Northeast - Maine, New Hampshire, etc.

The reason I feel sappy is because I am absurdly touched by the invitation, considering my stepbrother and I watched our friendship crumble into nothing when it was systematically assaulted by familial forces. You know the tropes - insecurity, envy, propriety, and other ugly words. We lost touch (despite the fact that we lived 3 minutes away from each other) and went on living our own lives. We were both in high school then.

I became a writer and a businessman, he became one of the top lawyers in his field.

Years later we bumped into each other at an IT event, and in the span of time afforded by a handshake and a smile tried to catch up on the lost years; but the intertia of our footsteps was too strong, carrying us away in opposite directions without fully getting to talk. We did exchange business cards.

And now, this. I wish I had to funds and the time to visit him in June. We could talk about all sorts of things while driving around the Northeast with the family (one thing I have always liked and respected about my stepbrother is his fierce intelligence - simply put, he's smarter than I am).

But the business needs my presence. And we are flying to the US this October anyway.

But still.

It's good to know.