Number Four

If any of my kids go into politics, it will be Christopher. He has such a unique blend of compassion, wit and charisma. He doesn’t just make friends with his friends; he makes friends with their brothers and sisters, their parents and in some cases their grandparents. There are several families who think nothing of coming home and finding Christopher in their den watching TV, whether their kids are home or not.

It started early on. Even when he was little he liked people, and once he was your friend he was your friend forever. When he was in the 2nd or 3rd grade one of his friends broke their arm and had to sit out recess for a week or so. Christopher sat out with him because he didn’t want his friend sitting out by himself. When his baby sister Sarah started kindergarten, he went to her room every day, several times a day to see if she was alright. Okay, so he can be a little pesky too.
In the 3rd grade, when he started playing basketball and his brother Michael was in Air Force basic training, Christopher wanted to send him game pictures. Christopher was the only white kid on his team, and was blonde to boot, but he made sure we wrote on the back of the pictures which one was him so Michael would know. He didn’t see color, he saw basketball players.

After we were up here a few years and he was in the 7th or 8th grade, every little kid in school treated him like he was some sort of hero. Whenever he was singled out for something during assembly, he would get standing ovations from the little folks. Why? He paid attention to them. He would speak to them, give them “high 5s”, or just acknowledge them in some way when they passed in the hall.

And it wasn’t just the younger folks. He went to visit senior citizen homes and played checkers with them. Once, during pregame warm ups for a high school basketball game he ran over to the stands and shook hands with a friend’s grandfather he had met briefly the day before and welcomed him to the game.

If you saw him do things like that once or twice, you could say he planned them, but he didn’t. He just does it and he’s that way every day. Did he graduate with honors? No. And the only water he walks on is in my mind, along with his brothers and sisters, but he is a special kid. I wish I could say I had something to do with him being that way, but I know that caring and unselfishness like that comes from a much higher authority than me.