The Elf, Diehard, and the Joe of Being Joe

Sometimes I find myself at a loss for words when I try to describe Joe to someone who hasn't spent any time around him.  

He's whip smart, especially when it comes to sports.  His vocabulary is incredible, probably because he is a voracious reader.  Friends who meet him for the first time often remark that talking to him is like talking to an adult.  He's friendly and, in most situations, confident.  He's a leader in the classroom and on the athletic fields.  He's very competitive.  He can be stubborn, more so than JP, but not in a bad way.  He's more determined than stubborn in certain situations.  

Joe has a great sense of humor.  His laughs easily.  Great smile, too.  Joe has a light in him, I think, that shines brightly on all of those around him.  He seemed to radiate a goodness.  A kindness.  I know I'm biased but he's just that kid, you know?  The one that other kids want to be around.  The one that adults enjoy talking to in a way that's different from most other kids.  

I've written about this before but at least for now, there is still a childlike innocence about Joe.  A naïveté that, to me, is sweet and precious.  It's fragile, I think, because at almost 12 years of age, he's soon to begin to experience life - girls, friends, school, news, pre-teen angst - in a completely different way.  I thought that would begin to happen in his 11th year but to my relief, it didn't.  He's still Joe.  Happy go lucky, inquisitive, wide eyed, and innocent (that word again).  Relatively unscathed by the harder parts of life, like untrodden ground early in the morning after an unexpected night of heavy snow.  

For example, last year Jude and I assumed Cooper the Elf was visiting us for the last time.  We were wrong, thankfully, as it became apparent in late November that Joe was imbued with enough Christmas magic for Cooper the Elf to spend another December at our house, moving around from night to night.  To out delight, Joe began asking if December 1 was the date when Cooper the Elf returned.  He believed, which to be truthful, filled my heart with joy.  So, of course, Joe got up every day in December and roamed the house looking for Cooper the Elf, laughing at whatever clever place in which he hid himself.

Then, on December 23, Joe decided it was time to leave his Christmas list with Cooper the Elf, so he could take it to Santa Claus overnight.  Jude and I laughed and suggested that Santa Claus might like Joe to send his Christmas list a little earlier next year but Joe was undeterred.  Sure enough, the list was gone when Joe found Cooper the Elf on the mantle on the morning of Christmas Eve, as Joe pointed out to us with a satisfied look on his face.  

Here's the funny part . . . to me, anyway.  

JP, Joe, and I watched Diehard for the first time a couple of nights before Christmas.  Joe absolutely loved it.  Total buy-in and a spirited discussion afterwards about whether Diehard is a Christmas movie or not.  (Joe said "no," while JP and I said "yes.")

Completely undeterred by the violence in Diehard - or Mission Impossible or John Wick 1 and 2 for that matter - Joe loves action films.  

And, yet, he believes in Santa Claus (and Cooper the Elf), which is a beautiful thing.

That's the joy of being Joe and, I should say, the joy of being Joe's father.