I have spent the past several weeks contemplating what the words “brother” and “sister” truly mean. Everyone around the fire service has used or at least heard these words get thrown around the firehouse, but is there really a defined meaning behind them? For this article, the word “brother” refers to our brothers and sisters as a body.
Over the past eight years, I have heard and used the words “brotherhood,” “brother,” “sister,” and “family” frequently, but lately I have been asking myself if everyone who says these words means them or even knows what they mean. You may tell yourself, I know what brotherhood means, but is it the same thing that Firefighter Joe or Medic Sue thinks it means?
A recent search on the Internet from dictionary.com yielded five definitions: (1) “the condition or quality of being a brother or brothers”; (2) “the quality of being brotherly; fellowship”; (3) “a fraternal or trade organization”; (4) “all those engaged in a particular trade or profession, or sharing a common interest or quality”; and (5) “the belief that all people should act with warmth and equality toward one another, regardless of differences in race, creed, nationality, etc.” It wasn’t until I got to this last definition that I thought I was finally making progress in my quest to define brotherhood, fire service brotherhood at that.
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