09/01/19, Sunday

Your brother sounds like an incredibly fine person, the kind of person this world needs. His nice family can be his final legacy. Again, May I just say I am sorry for the loss of a beloved brother.

We had a discussion one time at the detention center and came up with a theory why some disadvantaged kiddos overcome, and as adults thrive while others coming out of stability fall, and concluded that,

(for one, poverty, while certainly a risk factor was not the benchmark that predicted failure. There are plenty of risk factors that are found in financially stable homes.) And that strength of character and resilience of the individual child were an important factor.

So there are 4 basic possibilities- A. Fragile character with little resilience

B. Strong character with resilience

C. Disadvantaged/dysfunctional home

D. Stable Home.

Pair B with D = Good Chance

Pair B with C = Luck of the draw

Pair A with D= Luck of the draw

Pair A with C = Poor Chance

If it was just a matter of poverty everyone living in it would be damned and all those from affluence would turn out to be decent. It doesn't seem to work that way.

A student asked me one time what I would do if one of my children ended up at the JDC (I think he was expecting me to say that that was something that would never happen). His question prompted me to realize that ALL children these days are at risk.

Your brother seem to be a warrior that walked through the fire and more than survived- a winner and one to be admired all the more for his overcoming.