Life…Friendship & Brotherhood

"We live in a world that has narrowed into a neighborhood before it has broadened into a brotherhood."

Lyndon B. Johnson

"A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity" Proverbs 17:17 

Guest Blog: Martin W. Dawes - Easy going scorpio living in Canada, credit analyst by profession & a faith can move mountains kind a guy. Martin and I are life long friends from our days of running track together at KC.

Being a child of post independence Jamaica, I always had problems comprehending pound and pence as opposed to dollars and cents. It didn't help that my brother, born before independence would always tease me about it. You see, I was fortunate to receive an high school education. My brother had to forego higher learning to assist mom and his kid brother during a very difficult time for our family.

To this day, to find out what’s really going on with my mom, he is the key, for as he puts it, they were in the struggle together from way back. We’ve had more of a father/son relationship, and the mutual respect and appreciation is a blessing to us.

Growing up, I often felt like an only child, attending a co-ed primary school helped, made some lasting friendships with folks for nearly 40 years. These friendships have shaped and molded my character all these years later. 

Entered that venerable institution of learning and achievement, Kingston College, much to the delight of my parents, and big brother, learnt a lot of life lessons and would go on to establish wonderful lifelong friendships.

Unfortunately, attending college didn’t yield as many meaningful friendships. This guest post on Don’s blog, at his urging, and him convincing me despite my protestations “a nuh nutten, we a family”, and that we are, a family, we celebrate triumphs; share in the pain of disappointment and loss, both personal and professional.

As a band of brothers, we argue, cuss and “gwaan” bad when we link-up, then everybody would ask,” when are we going to do this again”. 

You see, most of us are miles apart, literally, spread around the world, every country you can think of, or so it seems sometimes. What would we do without social media: Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, BBM’s and all the rest of it?

Recently, one of our friends’ son celebrated his 12th birthday, when his dad remarked to him that we‘ve been friends since we were his age, the expression on his face was priceless. Back to dollars and cents, the old cliché about good friends being better than pocket money is true, at least, in most cases.

You can follow Martin on twitter: @melbourne2north or look him up on facebook: Martin Curling.