I have been watching with disgust the story of the homeless men who were beaten by the teens in Florida. The timing of this story is Â…scaryÂ…interestingÂ…prophetic.

I sent my youngest son to California to live with his dad. Well that is not quit true, my son arranged to go live with his dad and kind of pressured me into allowing it is more like what happened. My son is 17 and through certain things not of our choosing he is very mature in some ways. Relating to adults very well and yet in other more important ways his mental maturity is that of a 13 year old. He is just now going through puberty and so he will out grow all of these terrible times but it is very difficult in the mean time. And of course everyone wants to put him on more meds even though meds is what caused the problems to begin with. 4 years of very intense chemo. did some very bad things. Bottom line is I have done my very best and it wasnÂ’t quite good enough. But I am afraid. My children donÂ’t understand their father and he doesnÂ’t know them. He had nothing to do with them for the last 12 yearsÂ…nothing at all.

So I was trying to get this person to understand the mentality of this child I was sending down. This child who is so mean and ugly to me he never ever says anything nice. When he comes through the door after school the only thing he says ’When is dinner” All he does is swear and cuss at us. He told his sister I never ever did anything for him. He had no idea how much that hurt, how very deep. But he had many years of therapy that did more damage than good. My personal feeling on that is that it was a huge waste of time and money for all of us, and it just alienated him from us more. But there has always been something about him and I tried to explain it to his father. When you are at the grocery store, and there is a homeless man, this child will take food out of your bag and give to them. This child knew where the shelter was but he also knew the other places. The places the real needy went. Here it is called the Shepherd’s Fold. A Pastor runs it. He bought a huge home and he takes in those in need until they can get on their feet. My child would find needy people and take them to this shelter. He found a couple one day, the lady had a pair of shoes that were falling apart and she could hardly walk so he put her on his bike and pushed her to the shelter. His dad informed me he would put a stop to that. I said no. This is his only touch with humanity and if you take that it is all lost. Like the boys who would savagely beat the homeless as they slept. They lost that humanity. I can’t help but wonder if they, like my son, are also troubled and did someone take away that one piece they had left to keep them tied to this world. That one thing to bring them back when all the confusion ends.

I talked to my brother in law the other day. He said they had to watch this child of mine. He would hand out all his money to the people at the stores and street corners if they werenÂ’t careful. (So I guess my ex listened. I am glad he did.)

For some reason I think my son will grow up to be a poor man who runs a homeless shelter. No matter what, as long as he retains his humanity I will be proud of him.