Charles

Last night was a pretty typical Friday night. I arrived home from work around 5:45 and found Jen in "her" chair feeding Brady. We had the typical conversation on what we should have for dinner. We have a load of food in the fridge, but neither of us wanted to cook. (translation: Jen didn't want to cook, and I never want to cook) While she was getting ready to go out, I decided to return some phone calls that I missed earlier in the week. I was speaking to Adam about how lazy he had been since the season of triathlon was at an end and about what we were doing for dinner. I learned that Adam had never been to the Pizza Shop in Benson, our old neighborhood. I told him to put on his shoes and that we were on our way to pick him up.

We walked into the Pizza Shop through the back door, because that is were all the off-street parking is located. To my surprise, the Pizza Shop was wall-to-wall people. It's never this busy! We found a table up by the front door. It was the last open table in the restaurant. I noticed as we took the table, that it was adjacent to the table that Jim Esch and his wife were enjoying some local food. For those of you not in Omaha and haven't seen the millions of signs, Jim Esch is running for Nebraska's 2nd Congressional district seat against the incumbent, Lee Terry. (I am going to show significant restraint to not go on a rant about my opinion of Lee Terry...but by this disclaimer you already know how I feel)

Shortly after we ordered our food, three well dressed people came in looking for a table. We helped with some chairs and Jim Esch helped with an extra table to make room for this party. The ladies were in dresses with wrist corsages and the gentleman was wearing a suit. It appeared at first look and later confirmed by conversation that two of the party members were on a date and the third was the driver. The gentleman introduced himself to us as Charles and informed us that one of the ladies was his date. Charles who clearly has Down Syndrome came right up to the car seat and began asking questions about Brady. He shook Brady's hand and commented on his dashing good looks. (Which he obviously gets from his father) Charles went back to his table, enjoyed his dinner, drank some wine, paid the tab, said good evening and vanished into the night just as quickly as he appeared.

I have done a lot of thinking about Charles in the last 18 hours, and this is what I have concluded. Charles is a man doing the best he can, to work with what he's got. He probably doesn't complain or whine about how unfair life can be, he just gets up in the morning and makes the most of it. As a man and now a parent, I think we could all learn a lot from a guy like Charles.