Saturday, June 4, 2016

Noble brother

This is the second time in an hour that I saw a brother refer to his brother as noble. It struck me as incredibly odd the first time, then two. It sounds almost biblical but no biblical text springs to mind. Do you call your brother noble? Where does that adjective even come from? This is just a tiny bit too weird. Does anyone call their brother noble?


When you do view the conversation it turns out to be them complaining about millennials being unfit for service.

My noble brother. 

That still gets me. My older brother has always been sort of like Jesus to me except a lot less perfect. He showed me the world. We moved quite a lot when very young so that turned out to be world after world after world. The year and a half gap makes a big difference in abilities. He was saddled with me dragging along. That's a fair description of the pattern until teens. 

Barry asked me specifically, after I told him what I told you, that the truck was inspected, if I recalled a specifically good time in the truck with Dad that I could relate, and that was easy enough, the time I was driving and cursed a guy with "douchebag" and Dad laughed all the rest of the way home. He was howling in the truck. He thought that was the funniest epithet he ever heard. He thought he heard them all. That's what was so funny to him, his goofy kid coming up with a new ridiculous swear after all those years around harsh people.

So that inspection was last month and this is how long Barry takes to get around. 

This is c/p 
I have to tell you, if I haven't already, that I thought you did one of the noblest things when you waited until after Thanksgiving to tell us Dad had passed.  I couldn't help from thinking of that every year when they would advertise some store on TV having "Black Friday".   And then Jim's 2nd son, was born the day after Thanksgiving and it made it all right again.  The world had come full circle.  One of our family passes and another is born.  I should only hope to pass on the day after Thanksgiving so one of my grandkids could be born on the same day.  Somehow, it signifies the family living on. 
What an odd thing to hope for. He hopes for the same spiritually affirming synchronicity.

I couldn't bear to call them all at the end of the day and cast a pall over everybody's Thanksgiving holiday thereafter wherever that would be. It could all wait a few hours. Let them sleep that night in peace. 

The word noble got me. It is an uncommon adjective. It strikes me as uncommon for a brother's description. I like it. I love it. But it is very odd. And seeing this regard expressed twice in an hour. It's not a word that springs to mind. Do you call your brother noble? 



9 comments:

ricpic said...

Some parents name their kid Noble. Imagine dragging that moniker behind you. "Hey Noble, stop picking your nose." "We can't invite you to the gang-bang, Noble, because yaknow....."

Synova said...

I don't call my brother noble, though I suppose he's as close to it as anyone. But when my son was born I thought in terms of "noble". That this was something that parents should try to raise their sons to be. I remember it very clearly.

The postpartum hormones eventually wore off and I didn't think about it much anymore.

The meaning, in my mind, was something like chivalrous but simpler... a sense of selflessness in his relationship to others.

edutcher said...

Schlichter is a little other the top, not my dish of Lapsang Soochong, but, if his brother is putting it on the line...

Synova said...

I don't call my brother noble, though I suppose he's as close to it as anyone. But when my son was born I thought in terms of "noble". That this was something that parents should try to raise their sons to be. I remember it very clearly.

Back before we let the lunatics run things, people often named their kids, especially daughters (Patience, Prudence, Faith, Hope, Charity) for the virtues. Not so much sons - Courage, Fidelity, etc., just don't sing.

Although there is a character in "Captain Blood" - Honesty Nuttall (I know...)

ndspinelli said...

Shoot for noble but be pleased if you reach honorable. Being honorable nowadays puts you on the endangered species list.

ndspinelli said...

Chip seems stuck on 'n' today.

Chip Ahoy said...

Ed, that was Schlichter retweeting somebody else.

Schlichter is always on about his own nobility compared with everyone else.

I never heard my brother use that word. And not having the heart to call did not feel all that noble.

The Dude said...

Have you ever met my brother?

ndspinelli said...

Didn't I meet him @ Leavenworth?

The Dude said...

Without further comment.