A unexpected drink

In my line of work we have a weekly professional development. These cover a wide array of topics from best practices to sexual harassment. No, not best practices in sexual harassment. LOL

Lately I have been feeling dry. Creatively I have not felt hydrated. My nightly Bataan death march failed to knock anything loose until I sat down for my scheduled PD yesterday morning. Sometimes you find answers in the most unexpected places, don't you?

I sat at the table with some nice guys I have gotten to know this year at my school. One is the head baseball coach, and the other two are basketball coaches. The source, inspiration if you will, of this blog topic is a first year teacher. Young guy, no more than 22 or 23.

He recently bought, with his parents who live in Oklahoma, a condo down the street from our school. He told us in the first few weeks he had moved in he would hear a knock on the door. He would answer the door and various little boys would be there inquiring if there were new kids they could play with. He would say sorry, he wasn't married and didn't have any kids. He told us this had happened about 5 or 6 times. He had even told the last two inquirers to spread the news that he was a single guy with no family.

He had had a rough day at school, as all of us that have been first year teachers have experienced. The door bell rang once again and he, in an exasperated state, went down to deliver his canned speech about not being married, not having kids, etc.

He said he opened the door quickly, probably too quickly. The little boy, no more than 7 or 8 stood there as Brian went into his spiel. The little boy listened to Brian and told him that he knew that he wasn't married and that he didn't have any kids.

The little boy just said, "I don't have a Dad around, will you play catch with me'? Brian said that all the days challenges went out the window, all the worries about finances, everything was then put in its perspective. He didn't even change out of his school clothes he played catch.

Brian also told us that it is almost daily occurance now on non-game days. A group of three to four boys, all without Dads around will play catch with a football or a baseball.

You know the ball has nothing to do with it. Boys would die without their Moms but they just need to be around adult males too. To hear their voice, see their smiles and to look into their eyes.

I was struck by that little boy's need and courage as I heard this story. I think it took a lot of guts for that little dude to lay it out there like that. I thank God that Brian was the guy that opened the door and not some guy that would just dismiss and shut the door on that kid.

The story concluded. I made some wiseass comment on how Brian really knew how to start the day off right. We laughed uneasily and got up to start our days. I got up next to Mike, our no nonsense barrio raised head basketball coach. He stared down at his hand out and I noticed a single solitary tear working its way down his face.

All of us guys are still the kid at the door in so many ways.