Moving On

As I write this, my baby brother is winging his way to the other side of the world.

After a rather fruitless search for a job here, he decided he would pick up and move to Hong Kong and try his luck there.  He doesn't have anything lined up.  He doesn't really have a plan. He's just going.

Needless to say, my mother didn't really take it well.  Actually, the story is that when this idea was floated to my father several months ago, in a hypothetical way, my dad made the mistake of mentioning it to my mother.  She started to cry.  That was the end of that.

When my brother decided to go forward with the idea, it was agreed that my mother would not be informed.  At least, not until the day before he was going to leave.  Funnily enough, we were all okay with this plan.  I know most of the people who have already heard this story were kind of appalled at this.  However, my mother solved the problem by backing herself into a corner.  About a month ago, she mentioned to my dad that my brother seemed to be having a really difficult time finding a job, and maybe it would be a good idea to look in other places.  My dad took the cue and told her not to worry, he'd already done that and was going to Hong Kong.  I wasn't there, but I heard it wasn't pretty.  However, there was nothing she could say, after all it was her own idea.

As today drew closer, I think she got herself into an acceptance/denial mode.  She figured out that she couldn't do anything about him leaving.  But somehow she got it into her head that he wouldn't be able to find anything there either and would be home within 3 months or so.  Whatever helps.

So now he's on his way to his new adventure.  But of course there has to be some irony in here somewhere.  In this case, my brother told me yesterday that one of the local prospects that he had given up on a while ago called him up earlier this week and asked if he'd be interested in having an interview.  All he could say was, were they willing to do it by phone?

Don't tell my mother.

"Homes, places we've grown, all of us are done for, but we live in a beautiful world"