Happy Birthday, Bro

My brother Paul turns 58 today. We're the closest in age (he's 27 months older than me) among the four of us boys. For many years, I thought we were diametric opposites. Paul was the best student of the bunch. He set a high academic standard that, on my best day, I couldn't approach.

He is musically inclined (still plays the guitar and his wonderful son Miles plays the oboe) whereas I once broke a piano key and cracked the top of a clarinet.

As a kid, I used those reasons as an excuse for not doing as well as I should have. Youth is indeed sometimes wasted on the young.

For many reasons, we were never particularly close growing up. It was nobody's fault - just one of those things. But you learn as you get older to appreciate people who are very good at what they do ... and learn from them as to how they do it.

Paul may have been a natural academic but that doesn't detract from the fact he worked very hard in the classroom. From the first day at St. Francis Grade School right through getting his medical degree from Michigan State, he always disciplined himself when he felt he had to.

Success followed him but that is the way the system is supposed to work. He's earned everything he has. One thing the right wing is correct about: there are way too many people who envy success instead of acknowledging (and celebrating) it.

I will always be grateful that Paul was there to care for our guardian Pete (yes, the dog was named her - I like to think she is quite pleased to know it from her post upstairs) during her last days as she battled cancer. He left a good medical practice to take a position in a small town in Oregon to tend to her. That was one of the most unselfish acts I have ever witnessed. If nothing else, it deserves this small notation here.

(He is still honoring Pete in a way. He doctors to senior citizens in the Denver area.)

Paul has been a kind and patient older brother over the years, accepting my idiosyncrasies without commenting one way or the other on them. It took me a while to appreciate that but better than late than never, right?

I wish I had a better way of paying that kindness back than this small public ode. But this seems to me the best way to do it.

So, happy birthday, bro. I admire all that you have done and thank you for the knowledge that you are there when I need you.

Hope you have a great day.