I DO have a Son

This is Jesse, whose brain is so big he apparently needs a hat to contain it.  I haven't written about him much because he lives in Oregon and is the strong, silent type.  I hear from him two or three times a year, on holidays mostly, not because he is neglectful so much as uncommunicative.  He is a man of the fewest words I have ever seen.  Even as a baby he spoke as few words as he possibly could and still get his point across.  He learned to talk in shorthand...........all little girls were called "Pie," which was itself short for "Pumpkin Pie"....... a nickname we had for Carrie(sorry). My mother was "nette," short for Jeannette.  All dogs were "Mack," the name  of our dog. All other females were called Mama, etc.  Phil and I were the only ones who could understand him.

  He didn't walk until fourteen months old, but when he did it the first time, he walked all around the house.  When he started school I thought he would be referred for speech therapy........but, no.  He suddenly decided that an expanded use of language was needed.  He was chosen to be the kindergarten spokesperson for his class over the loud speaker in the mornings and appeared on television describing the class Thanksgiving party. He was an adorable little boy.  He grew up wearing shorts to school year round, deliveed newspapers from an early age, worked in a convenience store (where he bought one lottery ticket and won a thousand dollars).  Typically he confined his social relationships to a very small circle, basically one girl and one boy (essentially using the same philosophy as he had for using minimal language). As far as I know, he had one girlfriend, with whom he still lives.  He met her on line.

Jesse was a big supporter of my art, and often gave me very sophisticated critiques while I was going to school.  He helped me hang art shows and worked with me when I coordinated the art competition at the Bangor Fair.  He like classical music, especially Beethoven.  He read voraciously. He routinely won awards for intellectual endeavors. But mainly he was obsessed with computers.  He flunked out of the university, and them got his degrees on line.  I don't know what he does for work, though he has told me several times.  I know he works with computers at home and travels for some company somewhere.  He and his partner talk to each other across the table on their laptops.

So that in a nutshell is my boy, a unique and wonderful guy.  I love this picture of him, which I found on facebook, partly because he appears as I think of him...........marching to the beat of a different drummer.