Ultimate Billy

Got a phone call from Whit, who had a graduation ceremony at his school Saturday.

He was telling me about one of his students, a kid named Billy. He's quite small, wears thick glasses, and naturally managed to get himself a bully problem.

The family had tried to get Billy some martial arts instruction at some point before, but he's not the only child in the family into it, and the monthly $600+ was just too much.

Enter Jade Mountain and their much more affordable family plan.

The kids are in, getting lessons, and Billy is improving dramatically. He's had to work hard for his progress, but he has made significant strides. Whit does not let anyone slide on their tests.

So Saturday here comes Billy's dad with a solemn look on his face, wanting to talk to Whit. Seems a bully was picking on the kid, again, and...


(Relish it, because you KNOW it's coming...)


Billy fought back. No details as to what exactly transpired, but the father told Whit that Billy "doesn't have a bully problem anymore."

That's got to be HUGE. How many of us were just like that? What must it mean to this kid to face his fears in the flesh and overcome them? This could change just about everything for him. School could become an entirely different place without some meathead pounding on him.

Billy DID get in trouble with the principal, by the way, and in fact, his Dad was worried about telling Whit because Jade Mountain rules make it quite clear that fighting is discouraged.

(If you're reading this Whit, I'll be glad to have a clarification of the rule).

But I gather Whit didn't think this was anything worthy of a reprimand or worse. How could he? I'm sure the rule is in place because some people, naturally, develop some skills and might be inclined to use them unnecessarily, inappropriately.

Such was not the case with Billy, and we all know that.

So it was an emotional weekend for Whit, and you know, hearing the story from him certainly affected me too. This is why he does what he does. This is the type of fundamental difference in someone's life that a teacher surely dreams about.

[Note: I changed the child's name. Everything else in the story is true]

***

Maybe I'll go into a thing about bullies at some point. God knows I had to deal with a number of them. I was always puzzled at how completely RANDOM it was. Over and over I'd think, Do I know you? Why do you think you hate me? Do you think I'm someone else? Why can't you leave me alone?

***

And it makes me concerned for THEBOY. He's a big kid, and that doesn't reassure me much, because I know a big kid with a kind heart can be a target too. I'd like to get his little fanny in some classes at some point, but back the truck up, Briscoe-san... he's only four.

***

Good weekend here. The dinner date went fairly well after a rough start. Somehow I ended up picking up the babysitter about a half hour later than I'd wanted. Got up to the Gaylord Texan just in time and discovered that they had no record of my name, my reservations, nothing. My tickets saved my neck, but it just about got ugly when they said they had no seats for us. And telling us we could just "find two empty seats" wasn't going over well either.

But we did, and had a grand time watching a murder mystery while we ate some good food. Kelli even solved it.

And the building was amazing! Gorgeous stuff. It's like this huge atrium with a water feature built to look like the river walk in San Antonio. Definitely a cool place.

***

Pitchers and catchers report Wednesday. God I love the sound of that. And before they set foot on the mound in Arlington, Hood and I will have been out to spring training to watch so much baseball a regular man might just spontaneously combust. Seriously, we're easily looking at six games in four days, maybe more. Kelli's the best wife in the world for letting me go.

I wish we could leave tomorrow, let me tell ya.

***

Okay, enough. Good night. Good week to you all.