Sister Act
Nearly 28 years ago now, my sister Anne came into this world born in the exact same hospital and the exact same delivery room I was about 4 years prior. It's weird; growing up a lot of people would say the two of us didn't really look alike but, as we've leveled out a bit getting into our years, people say we look similar. I personally don't see it at all.
Ever since she's existed, Anne has kind of been a bit of my opposite number in a way: I'm the hopeless idealist, she's the cynical skeptic. I'm usually a little more calculated sometimes to the point of cheerful detachment, she's the more emotionally effervescent impulse. Even as we share the same experiences, both the triumphs and trials, over the years, we kind of react in tandem: In those rare moments when I get uncharacteristically darker and moodier, she gets reflexively goes lighter and more optimistic. When she pushes, I pull. Personality-wise, we're like the Taoist Yin and Yang personified.
That doesn't mean we don't mix at all like water or vinegar; if anything it's like putting out a fire with gasoline in that we kind of playfully bounce off each other. The sibling rivalry is there but it's played for fun, not for keeps. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Chinese mysticism is that the Yin and Yang are often seen as opposing forces instead of being complementary and interconnected. Despite our differences in methodology and outlook, the two of us have definitely been through a lot which has kind of forged that dynamic; that shared history and background.
Growing up in suburban Virginia meant growing up playing in the great outdoors and we lived within walking distance of a lake and the neighborhood pool which definitely came into play, especially during the summer months. It was not common to see my sister and I biking through the streets of the sleep Fairfax suburbs, initially on her bright blue tricycle with tassels while I took to a low-seated black bicycle (Even back then I was primarily sticking to darker colors). While I was learning how to fight, Anne was learning ballet. We both ended up learning how to piano and guitar together but Anne was always better on the keys and I was always better on the six-string.
That shared experience went global too. We both went to the UK together, visited the same cities, stayed in that same haunted inn in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. I remember one time when I was a fresh-faced high-schooler nursing a tequila-fueled headache in Cozumel, it was my sister (then just starting out high school) keeping me company. Anne has been to South Korea a lot more often than I have which, admittedly, I'm a little jealous about but she's always been more in touch with her Korean side than I have; I'm only recently coming to terms with that whereas she had a tighter relationship with our mother meaning a lot more of that was going to be established in those formative years. As such, when it comes to that side of our culture, speaking/writing, even just ordering out, I usually defer to her rather than get in the way.
My sister and I have a pretty tight bond and it's always a bit weird to me when I see siblings that are more antagonistic. A lot of that comes from having to take care of each other, our teen years are really what defined what Anne and I needed to be for each other and, in turn, what we needed to be for everyone else. The teen/young adult stories are ones for a different day. In the meantime, I keep going back to the Yin and Yang thing: I've seen siblings that are breathtakingly similar and those that you can't tel are related but for me and Anne? We're identified by our own inversion, working towards the same things and shaped by the same experiences but in very different ways.
Ever since she's existed, Anne has kind of been a bit of my opposite number in a way: I'm the hopeless idealist, she's the cynical skeptic. I'm usually a little more calculated sometimes to the point of cheerful detachment, she's the more emotionally effervescent impulse. Even as we share the same experiences, both the triumphs and trials, over the years, we kind of react in tandem: In those rare moments when I get uncharacteristically darker and moodier, she gets reflexively goes lighter and more optimistic. When she pushes, I pull. Personality-wise, we're like the Taoist Yin and Yang personified.
That doesn't mean we don't mix at all like water or vinegar; if anything it's like putting out a fire with gasoline in that we kind of playfully bounce off each other. The sibling rivalry is there but it's played for fun, not for keeps. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about Chinese mysticism is that the Yin and Yang are often seen as opposing forces instead of being complementary and interconnected. Despite our differences in methodology and outlook, the two of us have definitely been through a lot which has kind of forged that dynamic; that shared history and background.
Growing up in suburban Virginia meant growing up playing in the great outdoors and we lived within walking distance of a lake and the neighborhood pool which definitely came into play, especially during the summer months. It was not common to see my sister and I biking through the streets of the sleep Fairfax suburbs, initially on her bright blue tricycle with tassels while I took to a low-seated black bicycle (Even back then I was primarily sticking to darker colors). While I was learning how to fight, Anne was learning ballet. We both ended up learning how to piano and guitar together but Anne was always better on the keys and I was always better on the six-string.
That shared experience went global too. We both went to the UK together, visited the same cities, stayed in that same haunted inn in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. I remember one time when I was a fresh-faced high-schooler nursing a tequila-fueled headache in Cozumel, it was my sister (then just starting out high school) keeping me company. Anne has been to South Korea a lot more often than I have which, admittedly, I'm a little jealous about but she's always been more in touch with her Korean side than I have; I'm only recently coming to terms with that whereas she had a tighter relationship with our mother meaning a lot more of that was going to be established in those formative years. As such, when it comes to that side of our culture, speaking/writing, even just ordering out, I usually defer to her rather than get in the way.
My sister and I have a pretty tight bond and it's always a bit weird to me when I see siblings that are more antagonistic. A lot of that comes from having to take care of each other, our teen years are really what defined what Anne and I needed to be for each other and, in turn, what we needed to be for everyone else. The teen/young adult stories are ones for a different day. In the meantime, I keep going back to the Yin and Yang thing: I've seen siblings that are breathtakingly similar and those that you can't tel are related but for me and Anne? We're identified by our own inversion, working towards the same things and shaped by the same experiences but in very different ways.
