Leave it to me, my brother and his wife to have a deep discussion on Christmas Eve. Really, there’s no better time for it.

Wine is open, conversation is flowing, and memories are being recalled. We landed upon a topic that is true for any area of our life.

“Good students learn from their mistakes. Great students learn from the mistakes of others,” my brother said.

We’d been discussing the yin and the yang of life — the to and the fro, the good and the bad, the wrong and the right — basically the truth that whatever was wrong with one person was made right by another whether they knew it or not…though often times they did — subconsiously.

If one mother had shortcomings, their offspring made up for it by doing the exact opposite with their own children. Whenever we saw a deficiency in one person, we tried our damndest to not be sucked into it ourselves.

Memory after memory was dusted off and discussed, and the truth that we as human beings didn’t want to stumble into the same ditch that others had stumbled into came up time and time again. When one is cold, another tries to be warm. When one is narissistic, another tries to be selfless. When one is shut off, another is embracing.

Without the wrong, we’d never be able to turn it on its head to get to the right. Without the wrong, we’d not be able to see where we could improve upon the course of lives for generations to come. We’ll have our own faults in time, but tonight I am thankful for those which we see that we can put a positive spin upon. Some may see our own faults and try to turn them around, but for now I’m proud to be able to flip on its head that which has weighed another down for so long.

Here’s to turning the negative into a positive and for making a right out of a wrong.