Brocation

Newsletter 2024-11-29

A few weeks ago, I saw my brothers for an early Thanksgiving. I expressed that I’d like to see them again. That wasn’t necessarily an opinion shared by the group. They didn’t say that, of course. Buoyed by holiday spirit (and maybe the other kind of spirits as well), they claimed they were interested in my proposal: a brothers-only trip next summer. We haven’t hung out with just us guys in years. My brothers were different people before they had wives and kids. Objectively worse people, but people I miss nonetheless. You could argue that I’ve also changed since getting married and having kids, but that’s not the case. I’ve always been exactly as lame as I am now. The moderating influence of women has no doubt saved the human race from extinction more than once, but it would have no place on this trip. Guys are different around other guys. We don’t shame each other for almost dying. If anything, we celebrate our feats of stupidity in stories we tell and retell for the rest of our (much-shortened) lives. That was the version of my brothers I wanted to see. They were all on board.

Days later, I texted them to actually plan the trip. They were shocked and horrified.