I have had one constant, consistant good thing in my life, and that is my best friend. The beginning of this coming school year in September, we have known each other for 49 years (5th grade), been best friends for 47.
Maybe a couple of times a year we will be doing something, or discussing something, and one of us will get a little frustarted at the other for not understanding us or picking up on something, and we will repeat ourselves loudly and with frustration.
Other than that - nothing. Never had a fight, argument or falling out. We don’t like a lot of the same things, and we have different opinions on tons of stuff, but we have never let it be a big deal.
By many people’s definitions, the Bros and I haven’t had an argument since the youngest one got taller than the table. The closest we have lasts about three barks and is along the lines of:
Sibling 1: says something but the tone makes it sound like “WOOF!”
Sibling 2: “Hey, don’t bark at me!”
Sibling 1 replays his last remark mentally, then says “sorry” and re-says the offensive remark in a human tone of voice.
OTOH, sometimes we engage in lively debate, in which we may even be in perfect agreement (just rehashing the twenty-five reasons why) but because we get excited doing it, people think we’re arguing. No we’re not, promise.
There are times we discuss things without being in agreement, but again, it’s a debate, not a verbal fight: being in disagreement and expressing it is not the same thing as having an argument.
I’ve got other relatives with whom I’ve never had “one word louder than another”, but most of them are relatives with whom I haven’t talked a lot anyway.
This is part of the reason my bond with my Aunt is so strong. A lot of our conversations over the years have been along the lines of, ''Can you believe this shit?!" She’s the only one who really gets what it’s like to be a member of our family. And she’s the only one who really understands where I come from. My husband is my favorite person on the planet, but he wasn’t there when I was 7, 10, 15. Only she was.