Sibling Rivalry? [Frankie Says]

Frankie says… There is no relationship I can think of as complex as a sibling’s. There can be intense hate between two siblings in one moment, and three hours later there’s joking and laughter. But wait another hour and someone will have made a snarky comment and we’re back to intense hate. Christmas always brings these thoughts to the forefront for me, since I get to see all of my siblings during the holidays – there are six of us, including me. Three of us are here in Los Angeles and the other three are back in Massachusetts. This particular holiday season I got to see my little sister who at 24 is 3 ½ years my younger. She and I have the most contentious relationship out of all my other siblings. And I have two theories about this: A) we’re the closest in age compared to the rest of my siblings, or B) we’re polar opposites… plus side and minus side…yin and yang. You catch my drift… However, I’m proud to say that the week spent with her there was barely any fighting – certainly no raised voices or tears like there usually is. Some heated conversations and debates, but that was it. It seemed that anytime we began to raise our voices, one of us would stop and reassess what we were arguing about and simply stop. We’d just shut up. And there’d be a few minutes of silence and then on to chatting about a completely different topic. It fascinates me that my siblings are the ones I can tell anything to and nothing to. It’s so easy to spill your guts and relate your darkest fears or stupidest stories, but at the same time keeping little details from them because...