Generosity

Yep, that's my brother and me. ages 5, and 10

For day 2 of the Wedding Week I want to share with you one of my brother's best characteristics. Generosity. He is an incredibly generous person.

For example during my Senior year of high school I was in need of a car. My brother handed over keys to his car, um, well, one of his cars. At the time he was earning a bit of extra cash buying, detailing and reselling used cars. So this car had been in his "inventory" long enough to have gone through the detailing process, but wasn't sold yet.

So, I had in my hand the keys to a Honda Accord. You can't beat Hondas for long lasting. Which is good since this particular car was already about 13 years old. Oh, it was a beauty. It was shiny, being silver and all, with a custom paint job (Part of the detailing process was to add a black stripe along the bottom of the car).

This car also had a moon roof. That broke when I loaned the car to a friend. I replaced it with plexiglass, so really, the car had a skylight. It also had a few other luxuries, like power windows and automatic door locks. I say automatic door locks, because they weren't power. On the console between the two front seats was a little lever that somehow connected to the locks. No power needed.

You could hear this car coming. Not in a deep rumbling cool way, but in a rattling and shaking kind of way. I always said it was the manifold pipe. Not because I knew what a manifold pipe was, but because it made me sound like I knew. And it was a fun word - manifold. The Car Talk guys would have had fun with this car.

I finally got rid of that car when I could no longer keep the tires on the rusty wheels. Though, I did get really good at changing flat tires. Ironicly, a skill my brother taught me.

In all seriousness. My brother would give anyone the shirt off his back. I would have been driving a BMW if that had been what he had on hand at the time. And, really, all I needed was a set of wheels.

He inspires me to want to be more giving, both with my time and my resources. I've seen him give out of abundance and I've seen him give out of need. He will sacrifice so that others have. He's pretty great that way.