emo tech support

My Brother, Will

I've known Will Wolff-Myren for a very long time. That is to say, that I've known him seven years this month. The odd thing is that it feels like I've known him my whole life. Like from the crib.

Growing up, I always wanted a brother. I was blessed with an amazing sister and I love her dearly, but everyone else I know had a brother, whether older or younger, and I was very, very jealous. Older brother seemed like so much fun to have around. You could share the same toys, which meant you'd get twice as many Christmas presents. You'd have someone to watch cartoons with and play with on the playground, no matter what time of day it was. The best part, though, was that they'd watch your back and you could watch theirs. "Hey, that's my brother you're picking on."

I met Will during the months following my first break-up with a girl ever. There are many memories that peppered those first few weeks he and I and bunch of other colorful high school characters became friends, but the one that stands out is the day he came to pick me up to go to the mall. At the time, this was how I would spend my Saturdays: Hanging around the food court, loitering in the video stores, and browsing in the B. Dalton. Will had other plans.

"How would you feel about going for a drive instead?" he asked.

"Sure," I replied. "Where did you have in mind?"

"South." With that, he turned and walked out of my house with me racing after him trying to decipher this unique turn of events.

That day, we drove about fifty miles south down I-5. We talked about our parents, school, our friends, and, most importantly, women. He was by far the first equal I'd ever been able to call "friend."

Will's best qualities lie in two places: his mind and his heart. His brain processes images probably twice as fast as the normal person's does because he's not just taking in the information he's looking at; he's cataloguing it for reference. Every image he sees is beautiful or unique or fascinating, but above all, it's interesting. The advent of the camera phone made Will's mind's life a great deal easier because he now had a backup for the "hard drive" that was his brain. The downside to all of this has always been his solving of every day problems as if they were tech support issues. That's where his heart comes to play. The enormity of his willingness to embrace new people and new things has always lent a sense of compassion to every action he performs. He is incapable of feeling truly regretful about an action for very long. Every action has a purpose and everything has something for us to learn. Every person we meet has something good about them and something to offer and every tragedy can be salvaged. Maybe it's just the Catholic education or maybe he is a truly kind soul.

One of his most admirable qualities is his "fortune cookie" logic for human behavior. Just like Confucius, the dialogue he throws into the ring of conversation makes simple sense and always makes you think. He sees an angle you knew was there, but hesitated to look at because of whatever was stopping you. No one is a "bitch" or a "whiner" or a "prick." Everyone is equally guilty and equally correct in whatever they're saying or doing.

What became evident over time was that due to our similar upbringings, psychosis, and experiences, we were more like brothers than friends. This is not to say that we weren't great friends, because we were. It was the arguments and the confrontations that we had that made us brothers first and comrades second. They were the fights that brothers had. In its own way, that was better. Brothers don't like friends. Friends can hold grudges. Friends can just up and decide to cut you loose and be done with you. Brothers know that they're basically stuck with you and had better learn to look past what's making them angry in order to move on and not waste time that could be better spent having a good time.

I have two younger half-brothers now. I envy them because they'll get to grow how I always wanted. It took me eighteen years to find the long-lost kin that I'd always known I had.

posted by AmeroKafka @ 2:44 AM