Adventure 1: The island

I'm stuck on an island. My plane crashed and we have no hope of rescue. A ferocious monster of some sort is killing people and tearing down trees, a pregnant lady has been abducted, a mysterious hatch has been found in the middle of the jungle, and I lost my favorite book. What is one to do in this situation!?!??!?!  Sound familiar?  If not, then you have missed out of a prominent culture icon: Lost. A tv show about, well the things above and so much more. Now for a random tangent.

I've been reading a Christian "self help" book recently. In this book is a chapter about family and their importance in your life: how one is usually much harsher and real with their family than with strangers. I read this chapter the day after I returned home from college. I love my family to death but I can easily get annoyed with my younger brothers. Back in high school, my parents called my room "the cave" because I never left it. I got annoyed and separated myself from my family a lot. The same thing happened over Christmas break and Spring break. I feel God wants me to change this and so I've been working on it as the week has gone on.

Joey, my youngest brother, and I probably have the hardest time getting along. I don't have much patience for his middle school intelligence and he doesn't have patience for his non popular older brothers ramblings of advice and such. We live in two separate worlds and have a hard time communication between them. On top of this, Joey has been learning the hard way how to make good friends and be a leader. With all the business of life, my parents really haven't had the time or patience for him either. God has been pushing me to be a better older brother, communicate on his level, and to be a mentor for him.

All this to say, Joey and I have been watching Lost together. We both love tv but usually disagree on what to watch. We talk during the show and get to spend quality time together. Lost has always had a special place with me and my brothers. Trent and I bonded over the third and fourth seasons of the show (the finale of season three was an emotional night that really brought the two of us together) and I'm really excited to be able to share this show with Joey. It's wonderful to hear him guess over the identity of the monster ("it's an earthworm!!") and to see him start to care about the same characters I did. I love it even more when he sees those immoral moments (which the show points out as immoral) and starts complaining to me about how stupid the characters are for doing something so dumb.

I've really enjoyed this time with my brother and I look forward to more adventures with both my brothers as the summer continues.