Silly Siblings

Nothing is worse than sibling rivalry. It eats particularly into the individual that feels itself inferior to a brother or sister. This sort assumes it has failed to come up to its sibling and thus creates sets of standards to try and outdo the other, seemingly more successful, member of its family. Examples are legion. Cain and Able settled it with murder, The prodigal son went off and when he came back caused quite an uproar. There are better, though less dramatic, scenarios of sibling rivalry all around us. When one sibling member of a family  achieves through  effort and good luck, a life that is sterling, and the sibling does not, the situation can become bitter. Usually the one who considers him or herself not as good as the other, carries a burden all of its life. An example of such a thing could be that a sister or brother excels in school, and goes on to become a professional. The other sibling is not a student and thus fails to continue in school. He can't get as good a job and is financially restricted. He goes on downhill to marry and it turns out to be a bad match and that also makes him feel inferior. His brother has a happy marriage. This further rankles the sad sibling. The second sibling, watches his successful brother all through life, and desperately tries to match what he does  to try and outdo him in some way.   He is, of course obsessive, and is using the wrong measuring stick. It is obvious to you and me, but not to him. It is a sad state to be in. When the two brothers get together, there is an unspoken undercurrent of  bitterness on the one side while the achieving member has no awareness at all of what's going on. Eventually, the rivalry rears its ugly head and  the jealous brother explodes into revealing his problematic lack of success in his own eyes and interestingly often says "Brother, I don't want you in my life any more". The truth is that he can no longer come anywhere near overcoming what he considers his odds to beat his brother, therefore, he opts out of the rivalry that he, himself, has set up. His brother is astounded by the reaction having no idea what has been going on. In other words, the competitive one gives up trying constantly to be better than his brother and decides to go-it-alone. Finally and rightly,  he realizes that each life has its own path and his is not the same as his brother's whom he has been trying to keep up with all his life.  Unfortunately, however, often the brotherhood is broken and will likely never again be the same.