"What's with these Christians, anyways?" I asked my mentor...
"They taste like chicken," he replied with a languid smile as he licked his fangs... It didn't really matter that his fangs were more figurative than literal, although I assure you, the few times he had nibbled on me, they felt real enough...
Looking back, on it now, what was merely hours earlier, I don't recall what brought about this conversation... I do remember that we didn't really mean anything derogitory to anyone, but that would be lost in semantics depending on who would be reading this...
Somehow, looking back on this conversation, listening to a cd that one of my sisters had burned for me, of her favorite band in Carbondale, made me realize that I wasn't exactly like my sisters... God, do I love them dearly, but we are opposite sides of a flipped coin, continuously turning in the air, content never to land, just to keep spinning and spinning... This cd made me realize something though... My sisters were a lot, well, cooler than I gave them credit for... Sure, our interests would never match up completely... Nor would we ever see eye to eye on most things... But still, there they were, supporting me no matter what... They definately were a lot cooler than I gave them credit for, not that I would ever say that to their faces...
Still I realized that I had grown to be quite different than them... Somehow I learned from their mistakes, their misfortunes, their sadnesses... Unfortunately, this just opened the door for me to make a whole lot of new mistakes... C'est la vie...
My sisters were never wildcards like I am... I don't fault them for that... Not everyone wants a lifestyle that I desire. That isn't a fault, merely a choice. Neither one of my sisters were ever an adventurous spirit like I am... Don't get the wrong impression, they are very worldly, very intelligent, and they take their own calculated risks, but they aren't into the kind of risks that I find so attractive, that I find almost spiritual... Once again, I see nothing wrong with that, and at the same time, it makes me almost smile...
They were different than me... We were graced with different gifts... They always had the looks, the popularity, the book smarts... They had the grades and the smiles to boot. My grades were good, but for some reason I could never keep my attention on one thing... To put it in an easily understood metaphor; Stuck in wall street, they would thrive I would merely survive... Stuck in the forest, I would thrive, they would survive...
They're family. I love them. It isn't by chance, it isn't by choice... It's some odd mix in between that grants them my grace. In the end, despite the fact that my sisters' lives are nothing that I would care to live, I'm so very proud to call them my family.
And should anyone ever try to eat them and tell me that they taste like chicken, they risk having an Ace of Hearts embedded in their chest...