My wife screamed, and I came running from the bathroom to see her with the sports section of the newspaper held up in both hands. All I had to see was the photo of a ripped young man in track clothing running towards the camera and the caption, but she kept reading the story anyway. Once I realized who he was and what it meant, I was pretty choked up. It was Marvin, the very guy that my website and music was about. The guy who knows nothing about me, but someone we talked about a lot when he was little.
When he was in my wife's kindergarten class and I was working in public schools, I saw up close and personal about the haves and have-nots, and wondered what would possibly happen to this kid with off-the-chart intelligence coupled with the worst-possible environment I could imagine in this town. Would he end up in jail for murder or would he succeed against all odds, against everything people know about education? To me, it was some kind of fundamental quest, wondering what it takes to do such a thing. We hear stories like this all the time, but this time, I was there. I read it in the paper when the police killed his dad while he was reaching in his pocket for his cellphone. I was there when another public school refused to accept him because of his behavior (I didn't know they could do that!), and all along, I wondered could his brain overcome everything else?
In a really strange twist, it must have, because it decided that sports was what he needed....just google Marvin Boone Sprinter...to read about the story I am celebrating today, the sunniest day this year yet.
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