Dear Dave,
You made the last effort.
You wrote that you missed the relationship we had as brothers, and I let that drift in the wind. I don’t expect it will ever return to the richness it once had. I’m not even sure it can.
But it was me who left your overture swinging and I apologize for that. That was unkind and you deserved more.
A mutual acquaintance said to me a year or two ago that, in a nice way, she was surprised that you and I had ever grown close in the first place because it seemed as though we had nothing in common.
I thought that was a keen and profound observation. Back in ‘75 or so we were very much the different set, I the hippie and you the hip Denver businessman, and yet we meshed well. It was ‘97 when things went bad.
And my distancing grew.
Emails have been exchanged of late that are encouraging and I do hope we can develop dialogue on a variety of subjects and grow once again to a position of good communication.
Why the “Open Letter?”
First, I think it’s because the questions you asked in your last email were wonderful. You plumb the depths there, and I believe the answers may surprise you.
Second, I think the discussion deserves exposure in the sense that others have certainly encountered similar if not the same conflicts and these discussions, one-sided as they may be, may be helpful. They may garner comment and insight that neither of us has considered, or that one or the other of us needs in order to bolster a point.
But lastly I use this format to see if you’ve accepted my invitation to read my blog, to learn some of what and how I think, what my hot buttons are, which hills I will be willing to die on, so to speak, and why I stand so obstinately for so many issues.
Since I’ve not yet received an answer to my last email to you (three or so days ago, I believe) I fear that either that you haven’t chosen to read here or that it blew you out of the water and you’re gone again. I hope I’m wrong on both parts.
I will continue with “Part II” in a day or so. Hopefully this weekend will provide a lot of time to structure answers for you, my Brother.
Best of all things to you,
Bro. B.
