By Jenny Dewey
“He is a good kid…”
These words from Jennifer, Jesse’s mother, are based on what a great kid Jesse is and not “motherly bias.”
Many remember the little boy running up and down the aisle in the UUCM sanctuary, racing with Norah Wiley close on his heels, indifferent to the solemnity of the service.
Back then Jesse was a lap-kid, a small boy sitting on his mother’s knees, half his face obscured by a mop of curly black hair. I remember thinking about that head of hair, how it would grow exponentially over time, and Jennifer would be stuck trying to decide to insist on cutting it, or leaving it to Jesse to make that decision.
Turns out Jesse did make that decision and his hair has continued to grow unimpeded.
Jesse grew the same way. There were a few instances when I saw him standing by his mother’s side wearing a baseball uniform and twitching the way small boys do, probably imaging himself anywhere but in the foyer of the UUCM building. Once Jennifer whispered in my ear saying, “We’re learning how to hold still.”
In the present-day Jesse is a self-described “voracious reader,” an aficionado of baseball, cross country running, and a lover of “game nights” at Jo Water’s. He scored 100% in advanced math class, likes drawing, dislikes speaking before an audience, and hopes one day to be an expert at water polo.
In our interview for this profile Jesse declared he remembers nothing, including “what I wore yesterday.” As the questions and answers went on, it turned out Jesse remembers a great many things. (I didn’t ask what he wore the day before).
He remembers being four years old and begging to be in his mother’s class at school. Now he is in his mother’s class and describes being “embarrassed” by the things his mother says about him out loud. Jennifer denies any wrong-doing.
Jesse loves working with the AV at UUCM services and once did this entirely on his own. He keeps up-to-date on National and International news and has strong opinions on all pertinent issues.
He loves the ocean.
Of course, there are typical twelve-year-old boy behaviors. It would be strange if this were not so. During our meeting at an ice cream parlor Jesse frequently rolled his eyes at his mother, distaining her comments. He devoured a gigantic ice cream cone decorated with gobs of chocolate and colored-sugar sprinkles. He found it hard to keep his eyes off a wall of jelly beans of every flavor possible in the universe.
In the final analysis this interviewer found it easy to agree with Jesse’s mother – that he is good kid.