The Wind Beneath My Wings: A Tribute to My Brother

9/15/04 by scott

Sometimes when the weight of the world seems to bear down heavily on my weary shoulders and I start to think that I can't possibly take it anymore, I like to sit by the window in my finest casual cottonwear from the J Crew catalog with a cup of hot chamomile tea, listen to the gloomy rain pitter-pat against the glass, and think of my brother Matt. Just knowing that a person of such outstanding character and inner strength exists sets my mind at ease. And the fact that he is also my brother and would be there for anything I would ever need gives me such great comfort that I feel I should celebrate his magnificence with a heartfelt tribute. Also, his birthday is coming up this Saturday and I can't find a good sappy "World's Greatest Brother" mug, so a written tribute will have to do.

Matthew Allen Powers was born on September 18, 1979, the same year that Empire Strikes back would have been released had it been released a year earlier. I think that Empire was the first movie I ever saw in the theater, and Return of the Jedi was the first movie Matt ever saw in the theater, so it's no wonder we hit it off so well the first time we met, on his fifth birthday when mom and dad pulled him out of the basement and forced him off to kindergarten. Matt had a difficult time at school, always trying and failing to live up to the legacy of academic excellence that I had left for him. He also had a rough time at home, where he was expected to do all of the work that I was expected to do. But the resilient second Powers child never let that get his spirit down, oh no. He just sucked it in and kept on going, determined to make the best of the situation and be the best Matt he could be. Knowing that eventually that attitude would mold him into the fine young man he is today, I tried my best to keep throwing hardships at him so that he could better learn to deal with them. I lovingly and patiently hit him in the head with a horseshoe, shot him with a BB gun, pile-drived him headfirst into the rocks on the side of the road in front of my friends, and whacked him in the head with a treebranch in the park. And it is a true testament to his generous and benevolent spirit that he appreciated those moral lessons and never succumbed to the primal desire to beat the living shit out of me for revenge once he became stronger than me. He is truly a prince among men.

When our sister Rachelle was born in 1988, Matt's true character of loving nurturer was finally able to blossom. With mom and dad constantly working to put food on the table and me struggling to keep up with the myriad tasks involved with saving the land of Hyrule from the evil Ganon, Matt was left as Shelly's primary caretaker, a role he fit into perfectly. Under Matt's expert tutelage, he and Shelly developed a symbiotic relationship built on trust and understanding that is now so strong not even the mighty hands of Zeus himself could turn them against each other. And believe me, he has tried, again and again, with his thunderbolts and lightning rods constantly being hurled from up above in the cloud city of Bespin. Oh Zeus! One day we Powers will unite and bring you down from your mighty throne and rule the heavens for ourselves!

*ahem!*

Anywho, Matt has now surpassed me in just about every aspect of life possible except for grammar and spelling. Oh, yeah, and age. He makes more money than I do, gets more chicks than I do, can drink me under the table, and could whoop me easily in a fight. Despite all that, he still treats me with all of the respect and honor the good Lord knows I deserve. And when the time comes for us to throw off the shackles of oppression cast down upon us by the tyrannical Zeus, I can count on him to stand fearlessly in front of me, absorbing the blows of injustice so that I may live on to tell the tale of his legacy.

So I guess I just want to say before the tears well up and issue forth a torrent of salt water that will short out my keyboard, that I am very proud of Matt Powers. He is the best brother I could ever ask for. And though he probably deserves all the riches in the world poured on him for his birthday, he'll probably have to settle for another DVD collection of the Simpsons or Futurama.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LIL' BRO!!!!!!!