The Child Is Not the Man

 

 

 

“He won’t be any better,

He will be just like his dad.”

And the way in which it was said

You know his dad was bad.

 

But alas, the prediction failed,

He was nothing like his dad

And even the ones that predicted ill,

They were also glad.

 

The reverse was also true

But still a difference in the trend:

A child who had a good father

Still found the druggies’ den.

 

The child is not the man:

This needs to be emphasized

And what is always expected

Is not always realized.

 

I have a very good friend

Who, as a child, was quite disgusting

But throughout his adult life

His achievements are amazing.

 

I would not take the time now

To spell out those achievements

But suffice it to be said,

Absent is that disgusting intent.

 

He is often misunderstood

And I think in some cases envied,

Some appear somewhat mystified

At their unfulfilled prophecies. 

 

The man these “seers” expected

That child has never become

Instead, contrary to their predictions,

He became a profitable son.

 

Many have known the child

But the man they do not know,

He does not fit in to their category

Re: the phrase “I told you so”.

 

For had he continued on the path

He trod in his childhood days

These “seers” would feel vindicated

In predicting another stray.

 

I once stood in his defense

On an occasion he was castigated,

The information that was relayed

Was clearly fabricated.

 

 

“You don’t know the man!”

Was my unreserved reprimand

For many may have known the child

But they do not know the man.

 

The man projected in the child

Is not the man the “seers” see

And they are extremely mystified

In the man he turned out to be.

 

As an educator for four decades

I have seen it go both ways:

Starting out bad becoming good

Or the good becoming strays.

 

For me the consolation is:

The former out numbers the latter

For when the good becomes the stray

For society, this is a grave matter.

 

 

The child is not the man

However good or bad a child he be,

And when all is said and done

We can only wait and see.

 

Stewart Russell © May 26, 2021