Oh Brother, where art thou?

A Vietnamese proverb teaches us, “Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet.” Think about it for a minute and you come to understand how the people who know us best can either buoy us up or bring us down. They are present to share in our triumphs and they are there to help us endure the trials. Siblings give life substance. They make the world matter, years before our friends, our careers and our lovers give us purpose.

Growing up, I always wanted to be like my older brother. He was permanently leaps and bounds ahead of me athletically (and many would agree that he was also light years ahead of me in moral character but that’s a different story). His excellence at excelling at life challenged me to be a better person as a youth that has carried over into adulthood.

So it is a bit surprising to read the case of baseball’s Mark McGwire and his relationship with his estranged younger brother Jay. The elder McGwire’s storied Major League Baseball career has been marred by allegations of steroid and human growth hormone (HGH) abuse.

There are famous siblings like Shannon and Sterling Sharpe, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko , Ramon and Pedro Martinez, Sandy and Roberto Alomar, Petyon and Eli Manning, Tiki and Ronde Barber and of course the famous tennis sisters Serena and Venus Williams. Although the younger McGwire has been anything but famous, it is his soon to be released book, "Mark and Me: Mark McGwire and the Truth Behind Baseball's Worst-Kept Secret," that Jay McGwire is hoping will catapult him into the stardom that he so desperately craves. But at what price?

Sibling rivalry is common place in our homes just as much as it is in on the fields of play across America. But did Jay’s love of the limelight and his wish to be elevated to the status of his famous brother drive him to betray the guy who had taken him in and cared for him when he was down in the dumps?

The most telling sign of the relationship between the McGwire boys is Mark’s statement to the media.

"You try to be a good person, you try to take care of somebody, be a good brother," said McGwire, trailing off. "It's sort of sad. It's a sad day for my family. I don't know how a family member could do something like that."

Hard to say. I definitely would not stand by and let my brother break the law without consequences but then again, I’ve never profited from putting my family under scrutiny. Would Jay McGwire have been as forthcoming with his revealing, tell-all book if Mark McGwire was working at Wal-Mart? What do you think?