Unexpected Benefits

Wednesday is our day.  We drive the seminary carpool.  We drive 4 kids from our neighborhood to the church (including Braeden) then we pick them up at the church 50 minutes later and drive them to the school.

It's early.  And dark.  And I yawn every 30 seconds.

Yesterday morning we picked up Chloe first.  She climbed into the van with a smile on her face and a chipper, "Good Morning!"  (She must have inherited her mother's sunny disposition.)

Hans was waiting for us on the corner.  I have never seen him anything except amiable as long as I've known him.  He's also always conscientious and on time.

Adam (not my Adam) climbed in last, dressed in a shirt and tie because today's a football game.  They all four chatted pleasantly.

At the church they shuffled out and several of them thanked me for the ride.

Fifty minutes later, after a stint at the YMCA,  Adam (my Adam) and I picked them up again.  This time Jared joined us too.

As the last of them were climbing into the van, Brother Brown, Braeden's teacher, came outside to get in his own car.  Braeden quickly rolled down his window, "Brother Brown!  Bye!"  Brother Brown stopped to chat a minute, to tell us Braeden was a great kid.  Jared and Chloe teased each other as we drove away.  Braeden asked if he could stay at the school after a meeting to watch Adam (not my Adam) play his football game.  They all helped troubleshoot the best time/place for me to meet Braeden after school to give him dinner and a cell phone because he'll be there for the evening.  They were all five polite and kind and friendly.  I dropped them off at the school.  They climbed out and thanked me again for the ride.

Uneventful.

As we drove home, Adam (my Adam) read me an article by David Brooks in the New York Times from my phone.  (First he said, "You don't have a NY Times app?"  No.  But I have Angry Birds.  Just as valuable?)

The article was entitled "Young Adults Left Adrift in Sea of Moral Relativity."  It was a good article.  I like David Brooks.

It led me to thinking more about Braeden, Chloe, Hans, Adam (not my Adam) and Jared.  Those five are not victims of moral relativity.  I know (and admire) all of the parents of our carpool.  They are trying their very best to teach their children.  They are doing a fantastic job.  I thought about teachers like Brother Brown, who unpaid, gets up in the predawn hours every day to teach good kids to be better.  He's doing the kind of job that prompted Braeden (who had just seen him two minutes ago) to want to call out a greeting to him.

The uneventful pick up and drop off from home to seminary to school was sort of delightful really.  I knew seminary would be good for Braeden.

I didn't realize the boon driving around five teenagers would be to me.