Brotherly Love

When it comes to Black and White, two things immediately pop into my mind:

• The classic music video of Michael Jackson’s song where the faces of all different people morph into one another, implying we are all the same

• And the Seinfeld episode where Jerry describes the classic Black and White cookie as “two races of flavor living side by side… nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate and yet somehow racial harmony eludes us.   If people would only look to the cookie all our problems would be solved.  Look to the cookie Elaine.  Look to the cookie!

Before I get to how this relates to today’s story let me take a step back.

A few days ago, I had lunch with my brother, who is fourteen years older than me.

He lives 1,000 miles away, but for 90 minutes, we just happened to be in the same city at the same time.

My brother is a human, not a cat, but he has lived nearly nine lives.

A year out of high school, he moved to Hawaii to quench his thirst for surfing.   He bussed tables so that he could afford to ride the waves.

From there is was off to college where he would graduate a couple of years later with a degree in Liberal Studies.

Before putting his degree to work, he had one more hobby to conquer and that was skiing. 

He moved to the mountains, where he worked as a chairlift operator at a Ski Resort.

That job gave him the opportunity to ski for free in his free time.

As you can tell, he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth.   He worked hard so that he could play hard.

After he got tired of playing, he joined the working world.

At age 25, he moved back in with us.

Not because he was out of money.   It was because he had cancer.

Clearly, the games were over and it was time for reality.

That’s where the black & white comes in.

At lunch, 30+ years removed from his battle with the big C, my brother told me that while he was fighting the disease, he looked at life in two simple terms – black and white.

Black=bad.  White=good.

The goal was to make sure that you didn’t allow any black thoughts to consume you, instead spending your time on positive possibilities.

Negative thoughts were not only a waste of time, but a tremendous waste of energy -- something in short supply when you were battling what he was.

I was in my early teens when he was sick and I can clearly remember my brother being a very positive thinker, but I had never heard him put life in the black and white terms, until now.

Since we don’t see each other in person very often, it was really great to spend some quality time with him, even if it was only an hour and change.

He is older than me and wiser than me and definitely someone that I have always been able to count on for taking me down the right road.

I don’t know if he had a formal agenda for our lunch, but I could tell that he wanted to take advantage of our face-to-face time for a little unemployment pep talk.

Even if he never mentioned the “u” word.

After all, he does read the blog, so he knows exactly where I’m sitting these days.

Considering his success rate as a black and white thinker, I’d say that he is someone that I can really learn from.

He beat cancer.

Years later he beat a brain aneurism.

He has helped raise a mother with a bipolar disorder.

All the while running his own successful business.

I’ll have what he’s having.

Dance Fever

I’m guessing that my 12-year old daughter was not the inspiration for the Jackson 5‘s hit Dancin’ Machine, considering that “I” was only six years old when the song came out in 1973.

But like the song says, she is “movin and groovin” pretty much every day of the week.

Whether it’s in our kitchen or in the dance studio, where she spends more than 12 hours a week, she loves to dance.

Hip hop, jazz, pom. You name it, she’s in.

Last Friday night, she took on a new kind of dance -- a middle-school dance.

My wife and I chaperoned, giving us a night out and giving me a chance to forget that I was unemployed.

The theme was 80’s night, which was right up our alley.

One of the first songs we heard was Bryan Adams classic, “Heaven”.

Except, it wasn’t Bryan Adams. It was a dance version released in 2002 by DJ Sammy and Yanou.

Totally not the 80’s.

As the evening went on, we heard Journey and Wham, Miley Cyrus and the Black Eyed Peas.

Perhaps, the song that got the biggest reaction was the Village People mega-hit Y.M.C.A, released in 1978, oh by the way.

Totally, sorta the 80’s was more like it.

Many of the 7th & 8th graders dressed the part, with leg-warmers and polo shirts with the collar up.

The celebrity look-a-like contest was won by an a suburban white kid, dressed as M.C. Hammer, parachute pants and all.

For the record, “U Can’t Touch This” became a hit in 1990.

But, who’s counting?

I certainly enjoyed the night and enjoyed watching my daughter enjoy the night, but I still brought my smart phone, you know, just in case I needed to check sports scores.

At 8:44pm, on a Friday night, I was alerted that a new email had arrived.

So I opened it.

And for the first time since becoming unemployed 14 months ago, I had received a notification from my state’s job line that a job meeting my criteria had been posted.

At 8:44pm? On a Friday night?

Of course, I had to see what it was all about. Sure enough it was a job in my field.

The job requested three years experience. I have 25.

The job pays hourly. I have always been salary.

But hey, it’s a job.

I immediately applied, even though realistically, I am probably one of too many who put in for it.

But considering the struggle I have had to find anything, as Kool & the Gang would say, it’s time to “Celebrate”.

Released in 1980.