I’ve heard middle aged and older folks say this countless times; I just don’t move as fast as I did when I was younger. I’ve said it myself. And I really believe it’s true. But I have to say, even at my slowed rate, I move faster than my teen-aged son.

The kid moves at a snail’s pace. No rush, not ever. And he’s not alone. What is it with teens, I’m talking 14, 15, 16. They really move slowly. don't you think. I find myself always saying to him, “come on dude let’s move it. Step on it. Hurry it up.”

 I remember when the kid was a tot he was running all the time and I was saying stop running, wait for mommy, slow down.

Now, it doesn’t matter what’s going on he just takes his time. This weekend, at no fault of his, we were late getting to his symphony rehearsals and it was chair auditions day. In case you don't know what that is, it's when symphony members play individually for the conductor and compete for the best seat the closer you sit to the conductor the better.  I’d gotten hung up at work and by the time we left for rehearsals we were already late.

I was rushing, practically running to the car. I beat him there. He was just moseying along and I’m yelling at him to hurry up.

I drove like a bat out of (H E double hockey sticks) from the Country Club Plaza to Shawnee Mission East High School, weaving in and out of lanes on Ward Parkway trying to makeup some time to get him there as fast as possible.

The car screeched to a stop in front of the school and I don’t’ know why but I expected him to jump out of the car snatch up his instrument and run into the rehearsal room. He didn’t. He just eased out of the car as if he was carrying a ton on his back and took his sweet time reaching into the back seat for the instrument and then moseyed up to the school, as the same pace as always.

I don’t get it. It almost made me angry. I thought well maybe he just doesn’t care. Maybe I care more about this than he does. But no, that’s not it, because he moves like this all the time. Then I got to thinking that maybe kids move so slowly because they think they have forever to get things done. Maybe they think time is of not important.

Me, I know time is actually running out so I’m always moving fast trying to get as much crammed into a day as I possible can.

I’ve been thinking about this for days so I finally decided I would talk to him about it. Dude why do you move so slowly.

At first I got the typical teen response. “I don’t know.” He always makes me work so hard to get him to talk to me. So I pressed. “Haven’t you ever noticed how slow you are?”

He says, “Yeahhh. I’m always the last person out of the classroom, but I’m never late for my next class. A lot of time I’m the last person to turn in my paper but most of the time I get an A on it. I take my time so that I do it right.”

Ok I say, but there are times when it is important to speed things up a bit don’t you think?

He looks at me and shrugs his shoulders. He even did that slowly I swear.

Then he reminds me that his dad and I used to talk to the boys about finishing the things they start. That has always been a big deal for me, one of the lessons I wanted to be sure the boys learned. In teaching them that lesson we would always say to them, “the race does not always go to the swiftest but to he who holds out to the very end.”

He said he has never forgotten that and since he knows he tends to sometimes mess things up when he rushes through them he tells himself to take his time, take it slow, and keep moving. He tells himself he’ll get it done and it will be right the first time and he won’t have to go back and do it over. So far, he said, it’s worked.

Now Jordan may move slowly but he is a really quick thinker. I wondered if all the slow moving teens I see are thinking like Jordan that if they move slowly they won’t mess up, or if Jordan was feeding me a quickly thought response so I’d quit nudging he so step it up.

Now I’m thinking if he’s moving this slow at 16, what the heck will he do when he’s my age, with aching joints and stiff muscles?