Jordan and Paul

I wish I was a poet. A poet could tell you better about Jordan and Paul. Jordan is our 12 year old son. Paul is his 11 year old friend. They were born and raised together in the congregation of Broadway Christian Parish in South Bend until we moved away from there in the summer of 2003. They have since found many opportunities to steal a week or two with one another a couple of times a year.

They have a friendship that speaks its own language. And much of that language is in laughter. Some of it involves electronic games. Some of it involves movies (especially of late the Monty Python oeuvre). They are hilarious. We stopped by to visit our friends John and JoAnn and Anna in Dayton, OH. John and Paul and Jordan would feed each other lines from "The Life of Brian" and then challenge each other to furnish the next line of dialogue (complete with English accents).

Sometimes as we drove through Pennsylvania, D.C., Maryland, New Jersey, and Ohio, we would hear them erupt in giggles that could not be stopped.

One of the most beautiful things about Jordan and Paul is that they are very different from one another. Paul is interested in airplanes and World War II (the air and space museum in Washington was a highlight). He wanted to revisit (having just recently been there with his family) the WW II Memorial on the mall, the Vietnam War Memorial and Arlington National Cemetary. All of which we visited. And at each of these places he pointed out for us things we wouldn't have seen or known otherwise. He is inquisitive about the world and about his own life. He is anxious in the ways that most all pre-teen boys are...but, impressive to me at least, is his willingness to talk about those concerns with his friend Jordan (which we happened to eavesdrop on unavoidably once or twice on the trip). Paul keeps his head down a lot. I wonder if that is because he is tall for his age (it seems to me) and it is a small attempt on his part to blend in, where he truly stands above.

Jordan has his own anxieties...he is not fond of new experiences, and in fact, is frightened of them. And yet he is the most comfortable person I have ever known within his own skin. He is the most social of all of us. He endears himself to people, he jokes easily with others, and he is eager to share his joys with you as they come along. He is magic with younger children (while many his age would shun them) -- in fact he is a pied piper of sorts. He relies on lines from entertainment sources to feed him responses to rhetorical questions that people ask. He is playful with others and will introduce himself to strangers as "Lars Honeytoast." He writes. And he is always making up plays in his head. He does fine in school, but the academic pursuits of science and math are not all that interesting to him.

Both Paul and Jordan seem to live in their own worlds. And yet are a part of this larger world we all share. I have more than a thing or two to learn from them I think.