Day 6: Red Rover, Red Rover, Send Tom on Over.

Every day since I started my 31 Days of Kindness, I have been overwhelmed with an outpouring of encouragement, support and kind words shared about my brother.  Yesterday alone I received several messages reiterating what I have always know about Adam, that he was a kind hearted boy, willing to step over the typical social lines in high school, in order to befriend others.  

He did this in the hallways of his school, on the soccer field or the wrestling mat.  He was a hardworking athlete and genuinely loved being part of a team.  His best friends were his teammates, and on the night he was killed, he and his co-captain, were featured in the newspaper for bringing home such a big victory.

The following day, when news of his death had spread, that same picture again made the front page of the paper... but with a very different headline.  

Seeing that picture is bittersweet.  It brings my family joy to see Adam so full of life and excitement in the victory, and it breaks our hearts knowing that these moments were among his last.  

I want to remember Adam this way.  As an athlete.  Healthy, fast, strong.  

For Day 6, I wanted to honor Adam the athlete.  We planned to somehow attach a $5 gift card to the netting of a soccer goal at the varsity field near our house.  The plan was solid, except by the time we got to the field it was after dark and the field was gated and locked.

I insisted/forced Tom to go through with the plan... even though I am pretty sure this was the first time he's ever broken a rule.  But, he mumbled something about being like Robinhood and before I knew it, he was climbing a fence.  He used a tie-wrap to quickly attach the gift card to the net, in just a bit of a panic, as is the case in most first-time B&E cases.  But, it was for the sake of kindness that he put his clean criminal history on the line.  And there you have it, Day 6.

*In the unexpected case that the sirens that passed us moments after we left the field were actually coming after us, we would like to say that the above story is purely anecdotal and is not even true in the slightest.  The photographs may not be used to prove otherwise and/or prosecute us because they have been photoshopped and also we plead the fifth and if necessary, invoke the pirate rule, parlay, as made famous by Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Carribean.