Weekends with Jimmy - Part III

I was going through a lot of changes in the first five years after the break up of my first marriage. Getting to spend time with my young son on weekends was cathartic (I think for both of us). It allowed us both to cling to some semblance of our past life while cultivating the on-going father-son relationship that has always been near and dear to my heart.

Our weekends began to take on a familiar pattern after only a very few months. We would meet generally on Saturday morning (sometimes as early as Friday night if that was possible given the schedules of both myself and my ex father-in-law). We would go to the mall and hang around, potentially take in some movie. We would have a grand breakfast on Sunday morning, talk about books, school, computers and computer games (a favorite topic of my son over the first 5-6 years) and then get ready for the ride back down on Sunday afternoon/evening.

As much as I relished the thrill of going to pick him up, I hated to see the end of the weekend come because it seemed that I would just get used to having my son around when I had to say goodbye for five days. The ride back on Sunday evenings was always long and lonely.

He eventually did get enrolled into a private Christian school in the year after I left. His mother and I discussed this and it was decided that we would give it a year to make a decision but she felt pretty strongly that he would do better in a smaller environment.

After about a month of attending this new school, the conversations that cropped up within the car on the way up on Saturday morning began to get interesting.

“Dad do you believe in evolution?”

“Do I believe in….” Okay where the heck is this going?

“Evolution as in all species evolving in time through the use of natural selection and the adaptation of all species to their natural surroundings….?

“ Yeah, I guess…”

“Yes… I guess I believe in evolution. Why do you ask?”

“Well, the kids are calling me Evan.”

“Evan?…” Oh, I think I get it…

“So, this has become a topic of conversation in school?

“Yes.”

“In science class?”

“Well, no but, you see they all seem to think that there is no such thing as evolution. When I try to explain it to them, they laugh at me…”

“You’re kidding….”

“No.”

“Have you brought this up to your mother lately?”

“No…”

“Okay, I give her a call later. Anything else going on in school?”