Breakfast 48 -- Cooper Williams

              How do we talk to heaven?  I sometimes do not know,  but lately I have been getting so many signs.   6303, Mike Blessing, Craig Costello, a text from Rick  and a few more.  The other question is how would my buddy Phil send me greetings.  Knowing Phil he would not just send me blessings,  he would be messing with me.  So later when we talk, he would laugh and say "Remember when you thought you had that Big 'Trifecta Won and then all of a sudden the horse in 3rd died.  I was laughing my butt off, that was me."

              So finished umpiring and waiting for me in my yard tonight were 3 birds.  No shit. Cue song.

Don't worry about a thing
'Cause every little thing gonna be alright
Singing' don't worry about a thing
'Cause every little thing gonna be alright

Rise up this mornin'
Smiled with the risin' sun
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true

              We measure success in many different ways,  mostly using the wrong scales.  What is a life?  And how do we win it?  I have rich friends and poor friends.  I have rich friends that are always kind,  I have rich friends who sometimes  let their best selves get distracted by shiny objects.  We have built homes in Biloxi for people who thank us and hug us,  we have built homes in Biloxi for people who are still trying to figure things out.  The best people in my life that I have met,  earn less money in a month than I spend for one of these breakfasts.

             Cooper was in high school when we lost his dad. Since then academically, he has moved forward then sideways, then forward, then forward, then maybe sideways again.  I think for the most part he has worked hard to be able to afford most of his expenses.  He is working towards his dream while trying to keep a lot of plates spinning.  I know I thought I would do a lot more for him.  I sometimes do not see Cooper for a couple of months,  what has he been doing?  How could I have helped him?  I realize I did less than I could for Cooper.   We get lost in our own little worlds.  Cooper is okay,  he is doing good things at the Magic House.  Maybe I am just like everyone else using the wrong ruler to measure.  Everything I did in my twenties had nothing to do with the rest of my life.... or did it?

             So I have tossed enough dirt on the lead,  let me dig it up for you.  Cooper is a pretty fuckin' fantastic kid young man.  He is compassionate and caring.  He is funny and kind.  You want to spend time with him.  And he will be much more than this. I read today that when the bible told us about Jesus feeling compassion, The original Greek is much stronger: ἐσπλαγχνίσθη (esplanchnisthē)

              It means Jesus felt the compassion in his gut, his stomach was literally churning.  Cooper is a young man who feels things.  He stops and says stuff to me with a real seriousness and I know he is feeling these things in his gut,  just like the compassion of Jesus' was.  Cooper feels the pain of others,  sometimes he does not quite know what to do with it.  But each year as he grows older and stronger,  his friendship and this compassion are helping the people around him.  HIs dad  could be the goofiest, most juvenile guy I know,  but we had deep conversations maybe the third or fourth time we hung out.  He also would tell me out loud how much he loved Sarah and how he was the luckiest man in the world.  Cooper has some of this also,  he was born with some, but Cooper also worked hard to develop his own heart and his own kindness.  Give credit to the kid.  So now , I am rethinking my earlier words,  maybe those times I thought he was moving sideways, he was actually moving forward, and so on.

           Cooper recently went out a couple of times with one of my Biloxi superstars.  It did not quite work out,  but I know there is a young woman who will someday be a partner to Cooper and I hope she discovers his talents and his strengths gradually like watching a painter paint and have no idea what the picture will eventually be  (Cooper don't mean to jinx you, but the Marley music has continued and I am now hearing No Woman, No Cry).  I did not become who I was until my 30s or maybe my 40s.  I was a much better teacher at Nerinx than Priory.  Cooper will keep amazing all of us,  I think there is always a place for a kind guy that cares.

            It is 2018,  here is my new idea.  Anyone we think is family -- is family.  Anyone we think is family -- is family.  Before I wrote this I just heard from my cousin, Emily, who lost her father, my cousin Rick.  I told her,  she will always be my cousin-- it is simpler that way.  Phil always called me "his brother from another mother,"  He WAS my brother.  After Tony Sciuto;s dad died,  I went to his wake and later Tony, his son, his nephew, and his girlfriend went to Weber's.  We were talking about Steve's half-brother John Friskel, who I taught at Priory. I started to say, "I taught your half-broth....."  He cut me off quickly.  "In my family," he explained, "he is just my brother."  So Cooper has Sarah his dad's wife,  he has so many Burdges in his life, he probably has lost count (I know I have).  This is his family.  Every member of this 32 person tribe (on the trip of a lifetime TM)is proud of Cooper and loves him.  And there is a lot there,  Cooper has many layers (maybe he added layers when he was going sideways.  I am starting to hate that earlier paragraph)

            So Cooper's mother remarried and has two boys. The live just outside of Phoenix. This summer, Cooper had to relive all those memories of losing his own father, when he learned his brothers had also lost their father.  I think Cooper was 17 when Phil died,  his two brothers are under 14.  Cooper just got back from Arizona where he was just simply the big brother. Esplanchristhe is a big word it is that compassion that you feel in your gut.  I got to learn how to pronounce the original Greek it is a much better description of Cooper. Look at the picture, Cooper is a skinny little dude.  But I do know what he gives to me,  and I can only guess what he gave to his brothers last week.  Somewhere in that skinny body is a big, big heart. Two days ago on this blog,  I surmised that if all of us were just good neighbors, this world would be great.

           I know enough about the young man that sat across the breakfast table from me this morning.  He is a good big brother to his two brothers. 

That is enough. 

His family knows it. 

And all 84 of us are proud of that big brother.