Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Being the only sibling

I was reading Monster’s blog last night and her latest post was a birthday greeting to her youngest sibling, Rockstar. Monster has four siblings. While that is not in any sense extraordinary (well, unless we all lived in China… so maybe in a sense it is…), I have no concept of a multi-sibling existence. I only have one sibling. There’s Banina, and that’s it.

I have very sharp, very precious memories of one sibling. The fights, the secrets we shared, the fights. We have a way of being together, a strange comfortable dynamic. Then there’s the uber cool fact that we grew up together and share the same crazy parental units. We share really corny inside jokes (Wright Brothers) and strange references (I can have ginger sauce anytime I please!).

I share this affluence of history, trivia and inanity with only one person. It is an amazing relationship, more so now that we are grown, and I can’t imagine having that same kind of intimacy with someone else. And Monster has it with four other people.

Unfathomable.

Everyone else on this planet with multiple siblings has a unique relationship with each sibling. The time you tried to smother me with a pillow. The time you ate my portion of the fried chicken. The time you borrowed my sweater without telling me, stained it, then lied about it. I can think of a million little stories, a thousand memories, hundreds of conversations, dozens of arguments.

One sibling.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The advantage of having so many siblings is that the odds of your liking one at any given time are dramatically improved.

As are, of yours, the odds of your hating one at any given time.

Jona said...

I miss Monster.

Anonymous said...

I miss Jona. Whose birthday is coming up.