Thanks so much everyone for your words of support. No matter how things turn out, I really appreciate people's feedback and encouragement, and I hope the people following this story as it unfolds find it worthwhile. And come on everyone, let's stay positive and hopeful! You don't know what's out there until you get out there! And Catherine, he has two older brothers but I believe they're both taken.
I sent him this John Ashbery poem back. It's one of my favorites... I've always associated it with my journey and finding someone at the end of it, but it really describes the universal condition of taking your time to figure out who you are:
Just Walking Around
What name do I have for you?
Certainly there is not name for you
In the sense that the stars have names
That somehow fit them. Just walking around,
An object of curiosity to some,
But you are too preoccupied
By the secret smudge in the back of your soul
To say much and wander around,
Smiling to yourself and others.
It gets to be kind of lonely
But at the same time off-putting.
Counterproductive, as you realize once again
That the longest way is the most efficient way,
The one that looped among islands, and
You always seemed to be traveling in a circle.
And now that the end is near
The segments of the trip swing open like an orange.
There is light in there and mystery and food.
Come see it.
Come not for me but it.
But if I am still there, grant that we may see each other.
