Friday Kathy and I traveled 240 miles to the north Florida
town of Jasper. A state prison is
located there in which our son Alton is incarcerated. He is currently serving (though appealing) a
life sentence. Alton is not our son by
birth, but by destiny. I have known him
since he was born September 26, 1980. We
were neighbors in a community that I felt directed by God to move to. I became acquainted with Alton because his
brother Jerome, about nine years his elder, had along with this playmates first
befriended me.
Like in the song lyric we turn around only to find
years receding fast into the past; Alton and me—our life together—is founded on
many shared memories and experiences.
When does mutual commitment begin?
Is it a sudden thing—sometime founded at the outset—or is it more
gradually built brick by brick over the years? Perhaps it is both; perhaps it is neither. I think the father-son relationship we share
rests on holy ground.
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