AC O'Neal and the TV deal...

So AC decides to come to Heartlife after working hard out in the garlic fields. And he is a joy to be around. However, Heartlife has chunked up his life abit. This story goes like this...

Paula, AC's mom, asks to see me after church one saturday. We sit down near the front and she tells me this story. The night before she had asked AC to help her clean the house and his reply was,"No thanks, I'm gonna watch TV." So Paula and her other son, Austin, work on cleaning the house. The next morning she invites AC to go to church and he says,"No thanks, I'm gonna watch TV." Now you may be wondering why Paula didn't just pull him up by the ear and say, " Get with the program!" Well, Paula is a tiny thing and AC is 5'8" and 220...and Paula is not prone to violence. 

So enter AC's brothers keepers....Kevin Brusett, Heartlife mentor and Don Loveridge, parent of Heartlife children, teacher and otherwise great guy. We negotiate with Paula that I (Kevin ) can buy the TV for a dollar and keep it till AC straightens up. Then we arrange for when we can stop buy and pick it up. 4pm that afternoon seems to work out.

So Don shows up at 3:45 with some Jamba Juice. AC answers the door and Don say,"AC, I'm coming in." They spend the next 45 minutes talking about owning your own journey, respecting the efforts of your mother, how to get the internet to work, etc.

At 4:30 or so I ring the doorbell, all smiles and good wishes. AC is thoughtfully wary...like why are these two guys really here. I ask him if he knows what brother's keeper is. He answers in the affirmative and gives me the definition...loving some one enough to hold them accountable.

And I say, "That's why I'm here!"

After a few opening comments I tell AC I've got some great news. I just got a great deal on a TV.

He's happy for me but can't figure out why I'm telling him that. I let him know that it only costs me a dollar and he can't believe it. Then I let him know that I'll need help getting it into my car and would he mind. He's starting to get the picture and when I ask him to unhook the Xbox there is a subtle shift in focus. I say it's subtle because of what happened the next week. But that's the next story.

For now I've got a lovely 25 in. TV in my garage and I definitely have AC's attention. Now AC gets to decide if he's in a teachable space or not. Time will tell.