Three Days of Happiness

line of thought.
But “family” isn’t a comfortable thing for everyone. I, for instance,
had no plans to make any contact with my family in my last three
months. Because I had so little time left, I absolutely wanted to
avoid anything that would be sheerly unpleasant.
Ever since I was young, my younger brother constantly stole the
affection from our parents. From the outset, he was superior to me
on all fronts.
He was honest, tall, handsome. From twelve to his present
nineteen, he was never lacking a girlfriend, and he went to a better
college than me. He even had good reflexes, and took the mound at
the national high school baseball tournament.
I, the older brother, didn’t have him beat in any area. I had a slow
start, and he rapidly widened the gap between us year after year.
It’s natural that attention shifts to the younger sibling, and I can’t
even say it’s unfair that my parents came to treat me like a failure.
It was absolutely true that compared to him, I was a failure. What
would be unfair was if we did receive equal attention from our
parents.
I would have done the same thing in their position. What’s wrong
with loving the one who’s worth loving, and discarding the one
who’s worth discarding?
There was practically zero chance that if I went home to my
parents, I could live peacefully with their unconditional parental
love. It was more likely that if I jumped into the party next door,
they’d let me in.
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