Young John Sherman has a bright future.
He's an actor, you see, and an accomplished one at that. Why, just this year, he's already appeared in three stage performances in widely varied roles.
In his church, John, who is the son of Eastern Wake News staff writer Denise Sherman and her husband David, played the part of a frog in a play about the Exodus when the pharoah let the slaves go free. At the same time, he was a member of the chorus in a school performance of "The Seussical."
This summer, he played the role of a photographer trapped in the rain forest in a play produced by Arts Together, a Raleigh summer camp.
I have appointed myself President-For-Life of the John Sherman Fan Club.
Last spring, when he was performing two roles at once, I marveled to his mother about how a 7-year-old could handle two such responsibilities at once. I wrote him a note to wish him well, but the journalist in me couldn't resist asking at least one question. How, I asked him, did he keep all his lines straight without confusing one play with the other? "Write me back," I told him.
As actors can be, John was very busy and I didn't get a reply until this week. When it came, my faith in another theory about children was confirmed: If you want the truth, go ask a child.
John's to-the-point response to my question:
"Dear Johnny,
"I keep my plays organized because they are on different times and on different days.
"Love, John"
John wants to be an archeologist, a paleontologist and a builder. If those plans don't work out, acting is a great fall-back gig.
The lesson for parents in all this, I suppose, is that we should raise our expectations for our children. They will move heaven and earth to meet them.
Even if it means becoming a frog.
