Brotherhood and the Long Migration

I remember seeing a TikTok rant about the importance of siblings. The argument was simple but profound. Siblings are often the only people who journey with you from birth to death. In most cases, parents pass away during our adulthood, and we die before our children reach old age. Brothers and sisters, however, are blood companions. They are life witnesses who walk with us from infancy into seniority. The point of the video was to emphasize the importance of building strong bonds with our siblings, even when we do not always see eye to eye, because of their staying power.

In my love campaign, I have learned to mature into asking people I care about for support. This simple shift has been radically transformational for my internal development. I am a natural giver, and as a middle child with all the complexity that role carries, I tend toward hyper independence. My growth as a man has meant leaning into my gifts of mediation, communication, and social intuition by intentionally building bridges of love, support, and social infrastructure around me.

I have evolved into something like a patron saint of connectivity and brotherly concern. My mother has borne the greatest burden of this evolution, patiently enduring my long monologues filled with suggestions about how our immediate family might grow stronger together. My metamorphosis is often boring, sometimes overly critical, and rarely glamorous. Yet my mother has been an angel of long listening, supporting this new cause with grace.

As a community advocate for many years, I have learned that most positive change is dull and mundane, which is precisely why the world remains so corrupt and broken. Instead of supporting slow growth and steady development, our systems incentivize cheating, manipulation, and the exploitation of the most vulnerable. We justify these mechanisms of profit as necessary because of limited time or resources. Yet any careful study shows that scarcity is largely an illusion. Our societies do not have to be governed by fear of the other.

As a Black man in America, fear is an ever present force that must be interrogated daily before stepping outside my front door. Consistently, I am seen in ways that weaponize my skin tone and assign judgments before I can even open my mouth. Reality can shift suddenly in ways beyond my control because of racial narratives rooted in a history I did not create. The psychological toll is real and traumatic, and without regular therapeutic space to process these experiences, it can become crippling.

Microaggressions are one expression of this reality. They are subtle, often unintentional comments or actions that communicate negative, dismissive, or stereotypical messages toward someone based on identity such as race, gender, class, religion, sexuality, or ability. They accumulate over time. They reinforce power imbalances. They affect mental health, trust, and belonging. They are often difficult to confront because they are framed as innocent.

In my masculinity, I have learned to reject the toxic stereotypes projected onto me by society. I have taken agency over my lived experience and committed to the boring and monotonous work of redefining masculinity for myself. I am evolving, trying to become a beautiful masculine butterfly that can migrate with grace and in community. But the hard work of that transformation is building the support systems required to survive. For me, that begins with the most vital communal relationship a man can have, brotherhood.

"Love thy brother" - @ajtheson

This task is not easy. Uniting with a kaleidoscope of brothers for a lifelong journey is not the cinematic spectacle it appears to be in theory. Building brotherhood at thirty six can make you sound like a Jehovah’s Witness at the front door or look like a Mormon spinning the block. Muhammad made it cool to be a Black Muslim. Jordan made flight iconic. LeBron is still trying to make playing alongside your son the fade.

Brotherhood is countercultural. Yet it is the missing network in most men’s lives. The loneliness epidemic has devastated newer generations, and I believe many of our social fractures stem from a lack of intentional and vulnerable brotherhood in previous ones. We have failed to establish meaningful rites of passage into adulthood. We have become efficient producers of material goods while cheapening the inward formation of the collective soul.

Men need ritual and community. We take pride in marking victories, completing conquests, and earning honor. Beneath all of that, every man longs for acceptance within a tribe. Belonging is woven into how God created us. I believe we are being called into a new masculine evolution, one that values vulnerability, leads with empathy, and fights to protect the collective good of our communities.

The greatest enemies we face today are not always visible. Fear, when unchecked by discipline and love, produces violence. Corruption thrives in environments devoid of empathy. Gangs, elitism, and corporate mercenaries fill the void when good men grow weary of the slow and mundane work of mutual support and communal defense.

If we are waiting for Superman to save us, we are deceiving ourselves. Christ was a simple Savior who empowered a brotherhood to confront evil together. Simon of Cyrene was bold enough to lift Christ’s cross, sharing the burden of human failure for eternal honor. The road to Golgotha was rocky, boring, and exhausting. Simon did the long work, bearing witness, resisting the crowd, and supporting Christ when it was costly.

Brotherhood is Cyrene and Christ, bound together in love, sharing the weight for spiritual victory.

Y0u are looking for a brotherhood, sign up here:

urbanreformers.com/sonofcyrene

Jon Reynolds,

Son of Cyrene