Of fathers and sons
I work with a kid named Stephan. He's all big sensitive eyes, naive and sweet to a fault. He'd give you the shirt off his back if he thought you needed it, he's that good of a guy. Earlier this week we called him to see if he could come in and cover for Christina, seeing as she was very ill. He couldn't make it in. Usually there's a pretty good excuse if Stephan can't lend a hand, but we didn't get one this time. The next morning Stephan worked the opening shift with me. He apologized profusely for not being able to come in, for not being able to help out. He'd been in the middle of looking for somewhere to live when we'd called him. He'd been thrown out of his house. His dad had flipped out on him, nearly choked the life out of him. He'd been wailed on some. There was a huge cut along the side of his face. His dad had screamed at him. He had screamed how he was going to kill him, how he hated him, how he wanted him dead, wished he was dead. Had one of Stephan's sisters not been there, who knows what might've happened. So Stephan found a friend's house to stay at, and had that friend drive him to work the next morning, because he was too afraid to go home and get his own car. All this had happened, and all Stephan could think about was how he was sorry he let us down the day before by not coming in to cover Christina's shift. One of the nicest kids in the world, with one of the biggest hearts around, gets choked, beat up, screamed at, and threatened. Of course I was outraged, am outraged, but part of me, part of me just isn't surprised, you know, because it was his dad who did all this. Fathers and sons.
Some of you know Kyle, my little brother Kyle. I would clarify he's not my real brother, not by blood, but that would anger him. He'd argue that blood didn't make a family, and he'd be right. He's my brother, simply because he is.
I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at. ~Maya Angelou
So my brother Kyle, his dad, he's the real deal. Sometimes I feel like my brain doesn't even know how to process the information of seeing those two together. He talks to Kyle as a friend as well as a dad. He cares and it's apparent. He hugs Kyle and tells him he loves him...in public. It's all very surreal to me. I bought his dad a Father's Day card this year. I just felt like someone should thank him, you know, for being an inspiration, for crushing cynicism, for proving that great dads exist. Fathers and sons.
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Some of you know Kyle, my little brother Kyle. I would clarify he's not my real brother, not by blood, but that would anger him. He'd argue that blood didn't make a family, and he'd be right. He's my brother, simply because he is.
I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at. ~Maya Angelou
So my brother Kyle, his dad, he's the real deal. Sometimes I feel like my brain doesn't even know how to process the information of seeing those two together. He talks to Kyle as a friend as well as a dad. He cares and it's apparent. He hugs Kyle and tells him he loves him...in public. It's all very surreal to me. I bought his dad a Father's Day card this year. I just felt like someone should thank him, you know, for being an inspiration, for crushing cynicism, for proving that great dads exist. Fathers and sons.
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