One last stop before leaving Syracuse...

...to catch up with a good man who thinks like very few individuals I know. This is a spirit who keeps his observant eyes on his world and who is choosing to rethink some of his journey that has been and that still remains before him. It's been a year since we've been able to sit face to face and we had a good conversation. Funny that it was in the middle of a food court at a busy mall, but that didn't stop the depth of the discussion. Sometimes, what is meant to be said (and heard) doesn't need a designated boundary. The good talks can happen anywhere.

The highlight was visiting his girlfriend modeling in a window at the mall. She plays the role of a stiff mannequin wearing a prom dress and obviously couldn't talk. She did move her fingers, however, to let us know she saw we were there. I wanted to go in the store and talk to her as if she was real (which she was), but I was advised not to - I would make her laugh and she'd lose her job.

Now, the future will be the only storyteller of what happens next. Fingers crossed and some Ubuntu, perhaps, before another young man might realize his full potential. The great whatever knows that very few have the creative, innovative mind he has. The trick will be how he uses it - hopefully to become more like his father, a man who died before relocating with his family to the U.S.

It's easy to believe in this kid. My instinct see tremendous hope in the redirection he is trying to make. I have confidence he will make it.