Blood & Water
Blood and Water “Are you too good to join the Army? Who do you think you are? I never went to college.” After 40 years, the words still sting: big brother reaction to my little brother excitement at university acceptance. “Who do you think you are?” I worshipped my brother: at 15 years my senior even more of an imposing idol than most “big brothers.” He taught me to swim, and once when I fell in the pool before that lesson — promptly sinking to the bottom — he dove in and saved my life. He gave me my first car and then took me to a snow-laden parking lot at Willow Lawn Shopping Center to show me how to survive a skid: “steer into the swerve, not against it. If you jerk the wheel too hard, you’ll flip the car.” Two years later on a rainy New York State Thruway driving to college, my beloved brother-bestowed-car hit a nail and blew a tire. “Steer into the swerve,” and I did — terrified — but survived. My bother saved my life — again. “Are you...