I had the most amazing phone call from my son the other day. He called just to talk.

First he gave me a hard time about not answering a text message of his and the conversation just rambled from there. We talked about movies, school, his girlfriend, vacation plans, his next weekend up here, work…just about everything. I didn’t have to pull teeth to keep the conversation going as is sometimes necessary with a teenager. There were moments when we were just silent as one or the other looked something up on the internet that had to do with our conversation.

But we just talked.

I felt as if I were talking with any other of my good friends. I made sure the DVR was set to record and simply settled back and enjoyed the conversation. It rambled from one topic to the next. If you have never tried having a conversation with a teenager you can’t appreciate the significance of this call.

“How’s school?”
“OK.”

“Did you do anything special this weekend?”
“No.”

“How was the concert?”
“Alright.”

“How are you feeling today?”
“grunt”
“What?”
“mumble”
“What?”

This was not one of those conversations. It was one old friend calling another just to check in and see what was going on. Usually, in our conversations, there would be a quick run through a topic and then a looooooooong pause. As the oxygen left the room it would be a subtle hint that we were done talking. This time we just kept talking.

Watching my son grow into a man is going to be an amazing journey. As he gets older I am reminded of the words from John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy”. While the words take on a strong irony given how close to his death these words were written, they still are as meaningful when I think about my 16 year old as when John wrote them about his 6 year old.

Out on the ocean sailing away,
I can hardly wait,
To see you to come of age,
But I guess we'll both,
Just have to be patient,
Yes it's a long way to go,
A hard row to hoe
Yes it's a long way to go,
But in the meantime,

Before you cross the street,
Take my hand,
Life is just what happens to you,
While your busy making other plans,