My son came into my office early one morning and stood behind me at my desk, spinning his beads over my head. I swiveled around in my desk chair, placed my hand on his belly and scanned his face for his mood. He seemed content. His bed-head indicated a solid sleep.

“Good morning, buddy,” I said. “How are you?” Not expecting a response, I was in mid-swivel back to my computer to close out what I was doing when he volleyed a casual, “I’m good.”

I laughed in shock, hit with this splash of normalcy that means nothing to most people – a mundane piece of social nicety we typically gloss over.

I know that he’s most likely tossing out a learned script someone’s been practicing with him, and in the grand scheme of how he’s going to get along in life, a rote response may not seem to matter.

But this rare reciprocal gesture brightened my morning, at least.

I’m good, too, buddy. I’m great now, in fact.

-- Please go to https://itslikethis.substack.com/p/47-sweet-talk for the full transcript.

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