He is the me who risks all, braves the far country, undaunted by danger and dogma, whose life is extravagant searching, hoping and longing. As prodigal, I gamble all that finding my way home to self begins by leaving. The other side of us, a responsible and dependable if not timid part, is the elder brother who stays. Not on speaking terms with his adventurous brother, his life is mostly shoulds and oughts. Elder brother points the finger and labels the sins of his brother.
Elder brother relishes scorecard and check list.
As a second aspect of us, he is the diligent side of me who judges harshly. He knows they need each other. Just as father has no interest in his returning prodigal's repentant speech, so the challenge of the story may be to live within us and between us the awesome and awful tension between searcher and saluter, risk taker and security seeker, prodigal and parsimonious selves, question and answer, chaos and order. The end of the story is telling. Elder son, angry and adamant, refuses to dance.