On Joe, and a blessed mother.

I should know better than to underestimate by friend Joe. He's only 15. And I thought maybe he'd have a difficult time adjusting to the break-up of his parents. But the thing is, Joe is up to difficult tasks. For a teen-ager, he's got smarts. A reasonable amount of maturity. I find it easy to talk to Joe. To cultivate a dialogue. We call each other by our first names. For a while, Joe was the only teen-ager in the neighborhood that I knew by name. I know more now. Dalton. Carter. Connor. In the case of Joe, I'm not afraid to butt into his family and personal life. To make a bit more than small talk. To treat him more or less as an adult. Meanwhile, I find myself treating some adults as children. Seems kind of funny. But that's a fact of life. Some adults never grow up. And some children become adults at an early age. Don't know if that's good or bad. It just is. One of these days I'm gonna try to have a nice enlightening conversation with Joe's mother. To tell her that she's got an extraordinary son. I wonder if she knows it. She's really blessed. Yes, despite the break up of her marriage. --Jim Broede