O Brother

I talked with my brother over the phone this evening. I don't think I had chatted with him since August. Yet, I have talked with him much more often this year than previously. While I was in the US, I sometimes spent more than a year without seeing or hearing him. But, all the same, once we meet or start talking over the phone, I feel at ease with him.

I think familiarity is crucial to any stable social relationship, though I don't know how familiarity develops. It's not just the amount of time people have spent together but also the commensurability of personalities among other things.