Darkness is frightening. It is the realm of uncertainty, with everything enveloped in a state of unified oblivion. The world we call \”real\” — based on substance, physical existence and visible actuality — is nullified by the blackness of night.
How often do we let feuds linger on believing that we have so much more time left on this earth?
Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, in the early afternoon, I visit my younger brother at his nursing home, a mile from my home in Providence, R.I.
Amid the profusion of billboards along Southern California freeways, motorists are being startled by a new one. It features seven smiling faces of various ethnicities, with one, a woman wearing a black headscarf, holding a small American flag.\n\n
I have three sisters, two older and one younger. My youngest sister, Debbie, was born when I was 8 years old. In the months leading up to her birth, I remember clearly the anxiety I felt over the possibility that it might turn out to be a boy and I might end up with a brother.
It\’s a familiar story. Kids grow up, parents sell the family home and move to some sunnier climate, some condo somewhere, some smaller abode.
Joshua Hammer\’s book is called \”Chosen by God: A Brother\’s Journey\” (Hyperion Press), and while the titular journey refers to his brother, it may very well apply to Hammer himself.
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