To study ourselves is to study the boy, because we are downloading our interpretation of the world onto this growing latent man. Lately we are pleased that he realizes he is not “special” since it reflects our values. No matter what we don’t believe in entitlement, and although we each are unique, we don’t believe we or anyone else is remarkable. We are all born, we live life, and then we die. We think it is the easy way out to tell the boy he is special, so instead, we teach him to live with integrity and individualism so that in the future when he is near the end he will be able to look back and know he lived his life to the fullest.

As we grow together we realize we want to explore different routes of thinking and living — not exactly a common philosophy. One of our goals is to give him the opportunity to experience moments of life we were not given as children because our parents weren’t as fortunate as us to have that ability. Everyone lives differently, our life is no more important than the next person’s, and life is not a competition; that’s all we care about as we move forward together.

He looked at this picture and with wide eyes said “I’m just so puny compared to the world!” Those are the moments when we know he’s growing into the type of man we want him to be.