The Common Bond or The Competition Of Brothers

As the two brothers sat in my family room a conversation began. NateNo asked his older brother Stephen Jr. if he would now be living here at home during the summer? Stephen Jr. responded by telling him "No, he was going to be attending Summer classes so would need to return to school the following week." "What classes are you taking?" asked Nateno. Stephen explained to him that he was taking classes on writing poetry, which excited Nateno as he began to explain to Stephen that he to wrote poetry and spent a lot of time this past year in 2nd grade doing just that. Stephen went on to tell Nateno that he had three of his poems published this last year in a book. Nateno responded with "I to had my my poem published." Was this conversation the beginning of a competition between two brothers or was it all true and possibly a bonding time?

Stephen was a little surprised at Nateno's quick response that appeared to be more of a competition then reality. So, he responded by showing Nateno the actual book he had been published in. Nateno responded with "Wow, that is a small book mine is much bigger". Are you kidding this 2nd grader is telling his college age brother his poem was published in a bigger book then his brothers. Yep, he was. Off Nateno went running to get his BIG book.

Would you believe he was right he truly had a hardback book larger then his brothers with his poem published in it. ( we wont tell Nate it was self published by his class room teacher). Yes, they are both published poets and have a common bond between them.

Today, those two poem books sit on my coffee table one on top of the other just where by 2 boys left them - I leave them there to remind me that brotherly competition can often lead to a bond between two brothers who are years apart in age and spend most of the year miles away from each other but have discovered they are both published poets.