Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

I had a thought about my brother this morning as I drove in to work. If I had his life, I’d do drugs too.

My brother never really fit. The youngest of three, he tried college, but it never really took. He came home with a girlfriend who was not entirely well, had a baby with her, and has been working at more or less dead end, manual labor jobs ever since.

Now, I fully admit he’s made some lousy choices.

But part of his story makes me guilty. Is there something I could have done or said to put him on a different path?

And part of it makes me angry. There just isn’t room in our society for people like him any more-room for people who aren’t the sharpest crayon in the box, but want to give you 8 hours work for a decent paycheck?

Maybe I’m romanticizing it. Maybe he’s a lousy employee. Maybe he’s a lazy good for nothing. I don’t know-as an adult, I really don’t know him.

It just seems deeply wrong to me that a single, stupid mistake, or a couple of them, can be this life changing. Is it possible that we doom people to a life of senseless toil because of one error? Is it fair? Is it just?

Half of my brain says, “Yeah, so what? That’s what it is. Shut up and grab your helmet.” Then the other half says, “No. Life can’t be this hard. It just CANT be.”