“The lion does not concern himself with the opinions of the sheep.”
“I am a lion. Right now, you are a sheep. You stand around and eat grass. And get fat.”
“I’m not a sheep, Robbie.”

My older brother lowered his head so that his chin was about halfway to his chest. He raised his eyebrows and opened his eyes wide to say We both know that you’re lying right now, and it is only a matter of time before you see that I am right.

“Yes, you are. You are just sitting up there on the counter complaining about a grade that you can’t do anything about. That’s a total sheep move.”

Just the mention of the grade on my year-end portfolio made me angry. I was going to get a fair grade if I had anything to do with it. It was ridiculous grading, I mean how could she say that my introduction wasn’t original and characteristic of myself. That was just absurd.

Looking back at my brother I was going to give a snappy retort, but I couldn’t. Staring at his hard face I knew that he was right. I looked at his face with raised eyebrows and crossed arms, and I slumped back crossing my arms across my stomach and hitting my head on the cabinet behind me. Robbie just raised his eyebrows higher and spread his arms outward; in the see I told you I was right gesture.

“So, what makes me a lion then?” I asked him.
“Well you want to be a writer right?”
“Yeah.”

“Well, if you get this angry every time someone says they didn’t like your story, you’re not going to get anywhere. There are going to be tons of people who hate what you write, and when you try to get published or make a movie or whatever, people are going to say ‘no’ more often than are ‘yes’. The lion will take the no and keep going. You will keep trying and not stop until you get a yes, and when you get a yes you will forget all the no’s that every one ever gave you, and continue on your merry way. If you only look at the ‘no’s’ that people give you and then complain about it, you’re a sheep. Sheep suck. They are the people that don’t go anywhere in life and end up fat and lazy lying on the couch one day thinking about all the people that told them no or stood in their way and instead of thinking about what they could have done differently in the ‘no’ situations. They think about how those people were wrong and blame their pathetic washed up loser lives on other people, never taking responsibility for their actions.”

For a good twenty seconds after this speech Robbie and I had a pretty intense stare down. With the contacts that we both wear, it was easy to keep our eyes open. In the middle of the quiet quest for dominance Robbie asked me, “So are you a lion or a sheep?”

“I’m a lion,” I replied with enough confidence to move a mountain.
“Good,” he said fiercely.

A smile, so small that the everyday observer would need a microscope to see it, spread across my brother’s face, and I knew, just as a Lion revels in the glory of its kill, so too my older was basking the glory of the death of my insecurities due to his fabulous speech.

Albert Bierstadt: Among The Sierra Nevada, California; 1868

“Am I a lion?”
Robbie and I turned to see my twin sister Sammy sitting in a chair at the kitchen table with a timid look of curiosity on her face.
“That was a sheep like question, Samantha. I am very disappointed,” Robbie told her. He shook his head with a small frown, but we knew he was joking, kind of. “You have to have conviction and confidence to be a lion, and that was a sheep move. Don’t be a sheep.”
“Sorry”
“Nope. The lion doesn’t apologize.”
“Well what do you want me to do?”
“Sheep question. Be a lion!”
At this point we were all laughing at Robbie’s responses to Sammy’s questions, but we were secretly waiting for Sammy to embrace her inner lion.
“I am a lion. Nickie is a lion. Are you a lion?”
Sammy answered with a meek, “Yes.”
“No! That was sheep response.”
“I am a Lion!”
“YES! That was a Lion response! Good, now go to bed.”

And to bed I went, cherishing the fact that, not only did I have the best big brother ever, but also my big brother just gave me one of the most important life lessons ever, in my kitchen, at 10:00 at night. What takes normally half a lifetime to learn, I learned in one hour. Lions take what they given, just as it given to them without complaint, and take action to achieve whatever they intend, all while ignoring the opinions, judgments, and actions of others, going on their merry way, and surrounding themselves with other lions, lending strength and wisdom to each other, but never getting to far involved, leaving you with the sense of community and support that is needed, and craved by everyone; the real thing, the angel on your shoulder roaring not to give up, and keep trying, constantly reminding you that you are good enough, unlike a heard that keeps you from all your dreams and potential, turning even the strongest and most courageous man into the average person, moseying his way through life, contempt to take what is thrown at him without ever thinking of going against the status quo. Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.  A pride is so much more effective than a herd.