…and welcome back to In Jerusalem Tonight. We are talking to the youngest brother of a man arrested just hours ago by the authorities. He claims his older brother is completely innocent, but what about his political involvement?
No, he is interested in people not politics; that is why the crowds are drawn to him.
But what is he really like, do the public see the real man?
Yes and no. We’re just an ordinary family and I guess you’d say my brother is a chip off the old block. A real carpenter; like our father he has a feel for the wood, for the rest of us it’s just a labour. He is most like our father; strange that some gossips still say our mother tricked him into marriage, when she was carrying another man’s child. Maybe it’s because he is the eldest, but he does have the same wisdom and compassion our father had; qualities that not many people possess.
You paint a picture of a warm, loving family, why do you think your brother never married?
That’s a personal question only he could answer, but I think he knew he was never going to stay in the village. Travelling around, leaving a wife and family behind, he knew that would be wrong.
But he gets on well with women.
Yes he knows how to talk to them, as if they were equals, they appreciate that.
And yet in some ways he’s a loner.
I wouldn’t say that; he is a thinker, very deep. Most of us couldn’t take the solitary life, but he has the inner strength.
Would you describe him as highly intelligent?
Oh yes, it has always been a joke in our family that he held forth on theological matters when he was a child. But he never forgot how to talk to ordinary people. He was the perfect big brother; playing with us, making toys and of course he worships our mother.
So surely this is a man who will be able to talk his way out of this current little difficulty.
Yes, I’m sure he will see this is not the time to be humble.

Impressed. Loved it.
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Thanks Mike, I wrote it a few years ago for writers’ group and put it on my blog once before, three years ago.
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I like this very, very much. I wish my dad were still alive for me to share it with him. He would appreciate it so much. (He was an Episcopal priest.)
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Thanks Liz, I posted it on my blog three years ago, when I hadn’t been blogging long so I figured most of you wouldn’t have seen it. Obviously it never gets out of date!
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You’re welcome, Janet. Yes, the story bears repeating!
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Mistressful writing, Janet.
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Thanks Doug – I like that new word.
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Sometimes he wondered if he made the right decision going back to his carpentry and taking care of his mother. Still he missed the excitement of the big crowds on tour and wondered where that path might have led.
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Brilliant Geoff!
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Nicely done, Janet. Topical indeed.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Thanks Pete
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