“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
