Inspirational

Yesterday I had the privilege to meet a teen, which attends one of my group’s Charter Schools. He had e-mailed his principal and asked if he could have a philosophical discussion with her and the vice-principal. The principal, a good friend, passed the buck to me. I responded to the e-mail of the young man and had a great time attempting to figure out what type of teen would be interested in talking about ontology and self-identity?

I did one of those mornings where I squeezed everything in such as dropping off a car to get the brakes down, dropping off Terrance at College, took my dad mall walking, attended my men’s lunch Bible Study and then it was time to meet with this teen who seemed to be way to smart for his age group. I asked him where he would like to go for lunch, seeing the Principal gave permission for us to exit the campus. He vetoed Jack, McDonald’s so it was Applebee’s with a salad and soup.

He initially asked me what I did why I seemed to like it so much. I spent some time talking about being passionate to see youth and adults get what life is truly about. I talked about choosing to work with multi-racial youth and adults in a marginalized neighborhoods. I gave my discussion on being a bridge between different people groups that typically would never meet up. I talked about the difference between those who choose to just float or get by and people who were motivated and wanted to impact their world. I then shared my story about how I came to faith in Christ, my college days, marriage, doing construction work, getting chemistry degree, then philosophy degree and then going to graduate school.

I then asked him his family history, which really surprised me because he seemed to have it together and I assumed that his parents must be awesome and have a great home life. His response was that his parents were very different and had chosen to life separately with his dad living in Phoenix and his mom was out of state. He had decided that he like Arizona much better than Ohio and then the south. I asked him what was it that made him want to excel in school and life. He was reflective for a little bit and than shared about a couple of movies that had opened his eyes up to being driven to succeed.

As he started to describe this movie I realized it was one of my Anne’s favorite DVD, “Gifted Hands”, the story of an African American youth who is raised in the inner city and struggles with school. His mom becomes his motivator and helps him eventually figure out how to learn in a way that worked. It wasn’t too long before he became an excellent student who loved spending time studying, learning and thinking out loud. I could see in this young man’s eyes that he so much wanted to be like this John Hopkins grad that became a doctor that successfully separated the first Siamese twins.

It wasn’t too long before it was time to drop him off at school. It was clear that he enjoyed our conversation and wanted to talk more. I told him that I would love to listen more and learn about his present view of life, death, God and religions. We talked briefly about his father’s life experience of initially being a partier who eventually becomes a Muslim. I asked this teen if his was a real Muslim. He was quick to say that he understood the basics of the tradition but that his dad wasn’t really someone that practiced really anything.

As we are driving I give him my Kantian discussion about how it is better to live as if there is a God instead of totally denying the reality of a deity. I said that the moral discussion and the issue with why people want to be good or feel guilty when they are bad is something we must talk about the next time we do lunch. I was really blown away by this young man’s zeal for knowledge and pursuit of excellence.