Young child, teen have a lot in common
Pete is four, and his older brother is turning 16. In Pete’s world, running as fast as you can is good, and in Jude’s world, running as fast as you can is great. You see, Jude is a cross-country guy, and Pete is a cross the living room, through-the-dining-room, into-the bedroom- and back to the-kitchen-and repeat guy.
To them, running is essential. One would love a scholarship to college for running, and the other would just like to burn off some of the energy he’s completely filled with all the time.
Jude loves to fish. His other grandfather, his father, and his cousins and uncles immersed him in fishing from the time he was a little older than Pete.
In fact, not unlike David Letterman, Jude has evolved into a first-class fly fisherman, but that’s not all. He’s watched so many YouTube videos and replicated what he’s seen that he’s become a really talented fly tier. It is a skill, an art, and a passion that has evolved into a gift. His concentration and mastery of various threads, furs, feathers, and wires is nothing short of amazing. Pete loves to chase flies with his dog, Chipper.
Pete does love to fish, too, but mostly, he loves to cast his kid-sized pole and line off the inside balcony in their house. He also enjoys fishing in the pond behind his Yia Yia’s sunroom. When he plays in the man-made, tiny fish pond, he’s usually trying to catch the gold fish with a little net while his grandmother yells at him to stop terrorizing the fish.
He hardly ever hears her because he has selective hearing. We older guys can relate to that, too.
In the next few months, Jude is getting his permit and then his license to drive while Pete is already cruising around in his well-used convertible Mustang, kid-mobile. He also has a home driveway use-only, tiny Mercedes convertible that we got on sale at T.J. Maxx.
While Jude is being relatively selective about his relationship with girls, to Pete, all girls and women are fair game. In fact, he very articulately describes his relationship with his babysitter as a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, and proudly proclaims their love affair.
In spite of their age differences, these guys have a lot in common, and when they play together, they play hard and rough . . . Well, kinda rough. Okay, if you call pillow fights and cotton snowball fights rough, then it’s like WWII. Sure, Jude’s patience with his little brother sometimes runs out, and Pete sometimes would like to punch his older brother’s lights out, but mostly, they’re buddies, friends, pals.
Jude and their other siblings have had a significant influence on Pete’s vocabulary, both good and bad. Pete knows words that most kids don’t learn until they’re older or ride the school bus, but it’s all in fun because as quickly as he quotes his older brother or sisters, he forgets what he said and never knew what it meant anyway. He just loves to get a laugh from his usually shocked audience.
My brother was six years older than me, and our play together was limited to Army and cartoon drawing, but when he left for college, I was devastated and missed him every day.
Even though he was 18 and I was only 12, I wrote him letters often and sent him money from my paper route anytime I could. In turn, he allowed me to use his brand new VW Bug while he was taking graduate classes in Mexico when he was 23 and I was only 17.
He was a stabilizing presence in my life until four years ago when he passed away. Now that we’re nearing the anniversary of that day, I can only hope that Jude and Pete are friends for life, too.
Nick Jacobs of Pittsburgh is a Principal with SunStone Management Resources and author of the blog healing hospitals.com.