after returning from a week of traveling, i found this email in my inbox. 


ok. so yes, it sounds like it was written at gunpoint OR a teacher may have instructed him to write the email less he get thrown out of school and have to live under a bridge. don't care. for me it doesn't matter what prompted those words to be crafted, only that they were penned and sent. all the math classes in the world couldn't measure how happy those nine sentences made me.

but to show alex can also be kind when firearms aren't involved, a woman stopped me the other day regarding alex. she runs a robotics club that he used to be part of. he stopped going because of other after school options he wanted to pursue. one of those extra-curriculars is soccer. this year they got a new coach and one of the first things the coach did was change the days the team would practice. alex immediately noticed that the new days were in conflict with the robotics group. he forwarded the message to the club sponsor making her aware of this change (as some of her kids were on the team). alex is fourteen. like many fourteen year olds alex likes playing computer games, watching you-tubers, lazing about and doing nothing but on this day instead of doing any of those things he (1) had the thought to help a woman he no longer interacts with and (2) possibly more importantly, took the time to dash off the note. heck, there are times i didn't muster that sort of energy and consideration for more dire moments.

and when alex is not making me warm inside or helping near-strangers he is making his mother laugh. i've never seen someone own another person's funny-bone as much as alex does marty. he can walk into a room and in seconds have marty's hands covering her face in contorted laughter. a blurted noise. a twisted face. an exaggerated dance move. i'm struck at the number of ways he can bust his mother, and others, up.