The Further We Go - The Closer We Feel?

My Brother & Me, 2008, NL

During having dinner, a childhood memory just came to my mind.

I was around 12 and our cousins visited us. We played a game in which we played against each others: 2 players against 2 players. My brother wanted to be with me, but I picked one of my cousins arguing that they are here only now, but I can play with my brother any time. And my little brother got upset and just told me „You always say that, but you’re never in the same team with me!”

He was right. I wanted to be in the same team, but I always „postponed it”, saying „Next time”. Now, we are 15 years older, playing different games around 7000km away from each others...

And I pay more attention to my brother now, and wondering how he’s doing oversea. I live 1500km away from my parents and I think more about them than I did when I lived only 160km away. I used to get complaints from my ex-girlfriends that I spent too much time with my friends and too little with them – which made them feel that friends are more important to me than they were. About the time, they were right. About the priority of importance – they were wrong. But I can understand them. Probably I spent more „special moment” with my friends and I just „killed the time” with my girlfriends – because of the same excuse I used for my brother: „We can share some moments together later...”

I wonder if it’s only me, or others also have the same experiences. If so, then why do we act like this? Why don’t we appreciate more the people who are next to us? We get excited to meet somebody again whom we haven’t seen for a long while, but how often do we get excited to meet the ones with whom we live together? How much do we appreciate & make use of the time what we can spend with each others?