Firsts

I learned something this morning.

A little bit of history...

and I was reminded of something that I love about my brother.

That's my brother, on the far right, in the jeans....with the guitar.

And, yes, the photo was taken almost 20 years ago.

At the time my brother worked for CERN

{an international organization who's purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory}

Some of his co-workers, spouses and friends had a band.

"Les Horribles Cernettes"

Turns out that the

VERY FIRST PHOTO TO BE PUT UP ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

was of the band's female vocalists.

Here's a GREAT ARTICLE about that first photo.
Take a second to read it - it's worth it!

What I learned from this article

 is that next Wednesday (7/18) marks the 20th anniversary 

of the day the first photo was put up on the web.

And that my brother was there.

Actually there. And actually knew the people that were in the photo,

took the photo, edited it and sent it out. 

"as a test!"

He worked with the earliest versions of so much of this computer stuff that we use today

{and blog with!}

and take so much for granted.

I remember him talking about all of it, and telling us a bit about what it was going to be....

Truth be told, I rarely understood him!

So, all that is very interesting - for sure!

And one point that the article about the photo makes is that, often,

"firsts" are just accidents....or nothing too monumental.

And, it's only when put in historical context that they become so astounding.

For me, though, the bigger picture in all this has to do with my brother.

My brother is a very gentle, understated kind of guy.

Physicist, musician, athlete....philosopher!

He follows his heart through life - which we all say we'd like to do, but he really does.

And, without any fanfare, or need to show off his accomplishments,

he {quietly} sees and does many remarkable, cutting edge

and adventurous things.

It's refreshing - in a culture where "bigger is {often seen as} better" and 

money seems the goal for many and "firsts" are now tweeted, facebooked, blogged

and otherwise trumpeted world wide...

that there's a man who considers that the being there...

the living of the moment....

is really what counts every day.

And I'm really glad he's my brother.