Why Are We Different?

I was talking with my son today about what a great father I believe he is and how nice it is for Lennon to spend so much time with him. I recalled spending time with my own father and how I was really the only one of all four of us to do so. Bobby made a rather astute comment. He said that perhaps I am so different from my siblings because of the time I spent with my father.

I don't know why I never thought of that before. There are four of us, born less than five years apart altogether, and reared by the same mother and father in the same places at the same time. Yet we are very different people, not only in looks, but in ideologies and life skills.

Looking at my own sons, I realize they had very different mentors and father figures in their lives who contributed greatly to who they are. Even though all three of my children were also reared together in our two parent home, these other people had a huge influence on them.

If you ask us, each of my siblings will say our mother had the greatest influence on us. My father often worked three jobs while she was there to pull it all together and take care of us. Yet, my father spent a lot of quality time with me. especially while I was still very small. It was our special time. We had "dates" to go see a movie while the babies slept, or he took me to buy my first ballpoint pen so I could write like him, or we discussed the crown jewels or the Rosetta stone after dinner. He never did this with the other children.

My youngest brother was practically adopted by our childless next door neighbors and my mother's best friend. Uncle Ralph taught him to fish and hunt, how to work on his yard and house and probably a great many of his values. They were so close, that when Uncle Ralph and Aunt Jo became elderly, my brother took them in and cared for them like his own parents.

My middle brother and sister were probably closer to my mother, so no wonder we are all very different. Now that I understand that, I wonder what it is that makes certain people gravitate toward each other in such meaningful and deep relationships?