a weekend of brothers

It is a dark and stormy night tonight, the second in a row. We're now in Neenah, Wisconsin with my brother Carl, having said goodbye to Grafton and Steve (Tim's bro) earlier today. As we drove through some more odd Wisconsin towns on the way to see Carl today, a little warm spot for Wisconsin snuck in. Carl and I took a trip out to see Eric (our older brother) almost a decade ago when I first got my driver's license. Eric lived in Minneapolis at the time and I didn't want to drive on any freeways because I still had never driven on them and was scared about it. We took a state highway through Wisconsin as far as we could, and drove past lots of green pastures and old barns while blasting our teenage music.

Driving today to see Carl reminded me of how much I enjoyed that drive even during my years of mopey-teen-goth inability to appreciate the little things like sunny meadows. In one of the towns we drove through today, a group of about 10 people were marching down the street by themselves playing drums and bagpipes. In another, a group of people stood outside a scrappy bar, drinking beer just after noon on a Sunday and getting ready for some local band to come and play in the parking lot. Wisconsin seems to be full of weirdly interesting and generally nice people. The little towns don't feel like they're hanging on by their last nails like they do in Michigan. It's really a pleasure to see. Aside from the religiously freakish obsession with the Packers, Wisconsin ain't half bad.

Tomorrow we'll pull out of Wisconsin and if all goes well, we'll be in the Twin Cities in the afternoon. Both of our "little" brothers are leaving college and it's been great to spend a little time with them during such a tranisition oriented period in their lives. I've gotten to see Carl settling into a new routine post undergrad life. He's got an apartment with his good friend that they're keeping clean, is starting to enjoy his job, and is trying not to worry too much about anything else (which isn't too hard for him). I'm curious to see the next couple years unfold for him.

When we first pulled out of Chicago, I was a little worried that we were going to be spending the whole weekend with Steve and just this afternoon with Carl, but now that I've had a little reflecting time I'm glad that it worked out this way. Aside parkour played in a park in the dark, getting caught in thunderstorms, and seeing people that took themselves way too seriously at a Pirate Festival, the three of us spent most of the weekend in deep conversation about taking chances and getting second ones, spirituality, relationships, and change. I think this was the first time that Steve and I have really had a chance to talk like that with each other. Some of the defenses I had up I put aside, so I got to know this "new" brother much better. It was really a wonderful weekend and I'm so glad we had the time to spend there.

Thanks for hosting us, bros!