Wednesday, May 06, 2009

My Brother Jesus


About two years ago, my brother was in a play and starred as Jesus. I had a DVD of the play for almost a year and never watched it until this afternoon. I took it down to watch it with Carole my neighbor. She knows all about the Bible and I know very little so I thought she could help if I had any questions. Plus My Sweetie had no interest in watching it. I really didn't know what to expect.
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I don't think I've talked about my brother much here although I have spilled some stuff in some of your comment boxes. In a nutshell: In the years before Dad died my brother had a really nice house with a wife and two kids. He was a junior partner at Dad's insurance business, was a member of a civics organization, a Cub Scout leader and a Little League coach. After Dad died he took a long bad ride on the white powder train. After his nose blew out, he took to smoking the stuff. I cut off communications with him at this time because as everyone knows, the personality has been replaced by the drug. He lives in North Carolina and I live in Texas, so most of this was out of sight and out of mind, but I got phone calls from his wife (they were separated of course) and heard of sightings from my friends. And I had many long sad conversations about him with Mom. Before he ran the business into the ground, he sold it and once that money was gone (he had already blown through his inheritance), he was evicted and lived who knows where, occasionally showing up at some unlucky old friend's house asking for food or whatever.
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Well, one of those old friends said, "I'll take you in and give you a job but: 1) you can not drink or anything else, 2) you must study the Bible with us every night and 3) you must attend church with us on Sundays.
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Whatever your personal beliefs about churches or religions (and I know what most of yours are), this worked for my brother. He cleaned up his act and reconciled with his wife and kids. I thought it was all an act and kept my distance, but after a year or so, I saw that it had "taken" as they say in the south. I tentatively started talking to him again and that was a few years ago and now we are friends.
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I guess I must have had the DVD since either June or September of last year when Mom gave it to me on one of my visits to N.C., but for some reason I just didn't feel up to watching it until just now. Carole, who is awesome, invited me over to watch it on her TV which is as big as my truck. So watch it I did, and although I am not a Christian, I found it very moving. On many different levels.
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And yes that's a screen capture of my brother from the movie.
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And now, on the lighter side: My tongue has always been terribly tangled by tongue twisters and tonight I discovered that I cannot say "Splenda® goblin." (Please don't ask me why I was trying to say it, it's too stupid and I won't tell you.)

8 comments:

Jazz said...

Aw!!! C'mon, why were you trying to say Splenda goblin? Why why, tell, tell!!!

More to the point, what the hell is a Splenda goblin?


As for your brother, yep, you know my views on religion, but if it worked you can't knock it. If religion is what it took for him to get his act together, more power to him.

Mr. Jazz said...

My views on religion are the same as Jazz's but your bro's story proves that there at least some good in it. A lost soul that found an anchor and is now a functional human being: that's fine by me. Good for you for reconnecting with him after all the turmoil.

Oh, and I wanna know too what is a Splenda Goblin. I'm sure it contains no sugar...

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

It must be good to have gotten your brother back.

Scarlet said...

I don't know why but this post brought tears to my eyes.

I'm happy to hear that your brother turned his life around and that you are on speaking terms again...and that you got to see the DVD on Carole's bigass TV! :)

Cute pic!

Jammie J. said...

I think you spilled your brother story to me in person... probably because of my brother story.

I'm glad you finally watched the DVD... on a screen as big as your truck, no less.

Dude, splenda goblin is hard to type... although I can say it...

Carole said...

Gee, I wonder if everybody who reads this post, at the end is going to say out loud "Splenda® goblin"? haha I know I did!

I LOVED that video and your brother played an awesome Jesus! He was so passionate; it has been on my mind ever since. Thank you for bringing it over and sharing it with me. I've said it before and I'll say it again...I'm really blessed to have you as such a dear friend.

I'm headin' out to the East Coast tomorrow so I'll see you next week. Since I probably won't be getting on the internet while I'm away, I wanted to wish you a beautiful Mother's Day!

geewits said...

Jazz,
~~Anything you can imagine will be better than the actual story behind Splenda goblin.

Mr. Jazz,
~~I agree. If you have an addictive personality, religion is far better than drugs.

LGS,
~~It has been nice, but I guess I'll always be a bit wary.

Scarlet,
~~I guess that's because like me, you only have the brother, so you can empathize. He was always so attractive and looked like George Clooney in the mid 90's (B.C.). He was 50 in that picture. We have young genes.

Jammie,
~~With me it's much easier to type. I had a whole barful of people saying it today.

Carole,
~~I had a great time and I hope you have a wonderful trip. Enjoy spending Mother's Day with your son!

Jeannette StG said...

I have a brother like that, but I always tried to keep contact with him through those 20 years. My brother was not in a play, but music did it for him (he's a very good guitarist). Now, he is the first one to call me on my birthday and holidays (he lives in Holland).
I am happy for you that you have your brother back!
(came over from another blog)