How can family members be so different?
I just spent some time in my home town with two of my sisters (Jean and Belinda) and my parents. It was a nice visit with everyone, but driving back home I started to wonder… How can my family’s personalities be SOOOO different? I have 4 siblings and we are all very different. We were raised by the same two parents so shouldn’t we have some similarities. Granted there’s an 18 year difference between my oldest sisters (twins) and me (I’m the youngest), but I don’t think that plays a huge role in it. Now it’s true that we have the same basic principles that my parents instilled in us such as being good, honest, nice people, blah, blah, blah….. But honestly, I don’t know that we’d be friends if we weren’t related. I have so little in common with some of my siblings.
For example, my parents are both Republicans. This was an especially bad time to go home. Poor planning on my part. I really don’t like to discuss politics with my family because most of them have Republican views. Republican views I can handle, ultra conservative views I can’t. I don’t like debates or confrontations at all. My sister Jean on the other hand likes to “talk politics” to my mom and get her fired up. My mom is a devout Rush Limbaugh fan (makes me puke). So whatever his views are on a topic so are my moms. Which then gets Jean and my mom into a political debate. And that’s usually my cue to leave the room.
Then driving home, I saw a group of motorcyclists driving down the road. When I saw them the first thing that popped into my mind was a stereotype of motorcyclists. Tattos, missing teeth, dirty, beer drinking, etc…. but then I thought what a minute if I think that about those guys, then I have to think it about my brother. He owns not one but TWO Harleys. He just went on a week long bike ride from Arizona to Montana. My brother doesn’t have a tattoo, has all his teeth, showers daily (at least I think he does) and doesn’t spend all his time at biker bars. So I quickly had to think maybe the guys I saw on the road aren’t all that bad. 
But that got me thinking again, why does Roger (my brother) enjoy riding motorcycles? Is it a guy thing, maybe partly. But this is the same guy who sends me all sorts of political emails bashing Obama. Roger is not a huge McCain fan, but is a republican. Living in Arizona, he’s wasn’t a McCain supporter early on, but now he has to be because he’s a republican. In fact when he called while I was home he asked me what I thought of Palin. All I could say (remember I’m the one who doesn’t like to debate) was “She certainly took the spotlight away from Obama and the DNC in a hurry.” That was my nice noncommittal answer. But I did say they are going to have to stop showing her shooting a gun to get women votes. At least in my opinion. But I digress….
So this brings me to my own two kids. What will their personalities be like when they are all grown? Will they be close and talk often or will they be like my sister Denise and I who maybe talk twice a year on birthdays? Will one of them try to get me fired up on a topic we don’t see eye to eye on, or will we just avoid that topic of conversation. Will they be devout church goers like my mom and sister Belinda???? Only time will tell.
Loved the post…Being an only child for 22 years of my life (okay, that’s another story) I didn’t come into a lot of these scenarios. But now that I have two boys myself, I worry that they won’t be friends in the future as they couldn’t be more different. But it is good to hear you are at least in touch with all of your siblings…there is hope for my two
I can totally relate. Take a look at me and my brother. Same parents but we’re on the exact opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to most things! However my sister and I (same dad, different mom) are very similar. I’m not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing that Eva will more than likely be an only child. Although I’m pretty sure she’ll be happy running the show on her own.
Great post. I am very different from my brother in many ways. To me, it says that while genes and heredity are an important part of what makes us individuals, it’s our experiences that truly define us. It’s an interesting thought experiment to consider what a person like Hitler would have been like had he been born in Chile or New York. Or, how many people with enormous potential never achieved anything because they were born in the middle of nowhere.