Siblings

Our brothers and sisters are there with us from the dawn of our personal stories to the inevitable dusk.

~ Susan Scarf Merrell

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I think that we have brothers and sisters - well, those of us who have them - for the primary reason to teach us to deal with conflict and our emotions.  Most of us do this very poorly at first and if we didn't have test audiences who were obligated through legal and socially institutionalized channels to stay in contact with us, we would alienate a LOT of people as we were learning to navigate conflict and manage our emotions.

That said, I think that the term "siblings" is a misnomer.  In doing some research lacking both depth and fact-checking, I found that "sibb" has to do with love (brotherly love, for example).  Now, I don't know about you all, but I am not sure that love is the primary feeling I had for my brothers growing up.

I think "soblings" would be a better and more accurate term.