Singing his Praises
18/10/14 07:39
Let me see if I have this right. Nancy and I just drove 8 hours round trip to New York to bring Evan an egg salad sandwich? The quick and dirty answer to that question is "yes." But there is more to the story. We had really planned to go there to pick him up from school and bring him home. He had had enough. It just wasn't working out. It was a last ditch effort on his part going back to Columbus Day weekend where he extended his stay at home with every intention of not returning to school. Of course we didn't know that at the time but it became apparent as the days wore on and he was making no effort to return to school as we thought he would and should. Don't tell me it's about the food. That, my friends, is a red herring and he knows it and we know it. I'm not sure he knows what a red herring is but it's a fallacy of epic proportions and one that he uses shamelessly time and time again to distract from the real issues whatever they be at the time. We made every attempt to encourage him to get back on board with the schooling and he finally relented and returned to school albeit a few days late. But that experiment was short lived and he phoned yesterday asking that we come get him and that was going to be that. The gig was up.
He phoned us time and time again as we traveled south on route 84 through Massachusetts, Connecticut, and then New York. I envisioned him packing up his room and hoping against hope that his roommates would stay away long enough so that he could leave without being noticed once we arrived. As luck would have it, they returned to the room and had a conversation of some kind with Evan that turned his world that had been spiraling out of control inside out and all around. So much so, in fact, that his last phone call to us when we were probably 15 minutes away from his dorm was very different from the prior calls that days. He was then, by his own admission, not so sure that he wanted to leave school. It was one thing to pick him up and bring him home when the alternative was unthinkable, which was to insist that he stay against his will and god only knows what he might do to escape that nightmare, but it was quite another thing to have him come home when he was less than certain that that was what he wanted to do. It was an emotional roller coaster to be sure for everyone involved. He told us to go get a coffee and come around to see him after but we didn't need to rush. There finally seemed to be some light at the end of the tunnel that was something other than a freight train careening off the tracks and coming our way.
All I can say is that the lord works in mysterious ways. You'll not hear me invoking the name of the baby Jesus too often since I despise organized religion and have ever since my days as an altar boy but I was singing his praises yesterday. Truth be told, the Muslim brotherhood deserves all the credit here and I am quick to give praise where praise is due. I'm talking about his roommates who just happen to be devout Muslims. They found a way to rescue our son when and where we as his parents could not. We'll never know what they said to him that turned his world around if only for a short time and the fact that Evan alluded to his conversations with them at all told us all we needed to know about how that conversation went. They gave him hope where we could not. They gave him the kind of support and moral courage that we could not. They showed him the light where we could not. In urban parlance, they had his back and he responded in kind. We owe them a profound thanks for what I see as their divine intervention. I'm certain that this story is not over but the chapter, for now, has come to a satisfactory ending in my eyes. He is now squarely on the shoulder of giants and not likely to fall anytime soon. Not if Allah has anything to say about it.
He phoned us time and time again as we traveled south on route 84 through Massachusetts, Connecticut, and then New York. I envisioned him packing up his room and hoping against hope that his roommates would stay away long enough so that he could leave without being noticed once we arrived. As luck would have it, they returned to the room and had a conversation of some kind with Evan that turned his world that had been spiraling out of control inside out and all around. So much so, in fact, that his last phone call to us when we were probably 15 minutes away from his dorm was very different from the prior calls that days. He was then, by his own admission, not so sure that he wanted to leave school. It was one thing to pick him up and bring him home when the alternative was unthinkable, which was to insist that he stay against his will and god only knows what he might do to escape that nightmare, but it was quite another thing to have him come home when he was less than certain that that was what he wanted to do. It was an emotional roller coaster to be sure for everyone involved. He told us to go get a coffee and come around to see him after but we didn't need to rush. There finally seemed to be some light at the end of the tunnel that was something other than a freight train careening off the tracks and coming our way.
All I can say is that the lord works in mysterious ways. You'll not hear me invoking the name of the baby Jesus too often since I despise organized religion and have ever since my days as an altar boy but I was singing his praises yesterday. Truth be told, the Muslim brotherhood deserves all the credit here and I am quick to give praise where praise is due. I'm talking about his roommates who just happen to be devout Muslims. They found a way to rescue our son when and where we as his parents could not. We'll never know what they said to him that turned his world around if only for a short time and the fact that Evan alluded to his conversations with them at all told us all we needed to know about how that conversation went. They gave him hope where we could not. They gave him the kind of support and moral courage that we could not. They showed him the light where we could not. In urban parlance, they had his back and he responded in kind. We owe them a profound thanks for what I see as their divine intervention. I'm certain that this story is not over but the chapter, for now, has come to a satisfactory ending in my eyes. He is now squarely on the shoulder of giants and not likely to fall anytime soon. Not if Allah has anything to say about it.