Out beyond wrong and right there is a field
I will meet you there
- Rumi
Going to the Sun
My siblings and I share the same genetics but our hair is of different colors and lengths and we have each taken markedly different paths through life. We have a lot of birth order stuff going on but we were, of course, oblivious to it while it was happening. I am the oldest and was an only child for 25 months until my other brother Jim was born and he was the baby for 25 months until my other brother Joe was born. Joe was the baby for 8 years until Sue was born. So then Sue was the messianic baby girl (indeed only child) which allowed Joe to remain the baby boy and Jim steadfastly held on to the middle child slot. As for me I think I never noticed that I was not an only child. Jack Douglas published "My Brother Was An Only Child" in 1959 (one of the funniest books of any century) and the rest of us tended to describe our other brother Jim in those terms.
One of them considers me to be a liberal, one figures me to be a socialist, and the other is pretty sure that I am a communist. I think that they are each wrong - out beyond wrong, for I am a Realist, or I strive to be. But I am happy to say that, at least for us, there is a field out beyond wrong and right, and the four of us meet there from time to time. There is not one of us who had not learned from each of the others - but each is possessed of a righteous mind.
No matter our ideological alignment we each have a dose of Righteous in our way - we can't help it, we got it from Thomas and each other. Brother Jim would refer to this as "the Is-ness of the Was" (which may be original with him according to Google - which wouldn't surprise me).
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If you would like to see my collection of Carolina Lowcountry memories—"Magnolia Elegy: Place In the Edisto Fork," you can view the book trailer here, and see the book page here on the publisher's website. The book is also available from Amazon, B&N, and your independent local bookseller.
