My uncle

I had a 45 minute conversation with my uncle, Lawrence tonight. It was a good conversation. He even thanked me for it at the end. 

Lawrence is my father's youngest brother. He is in his mid 50s. He works as a janitor. He has autism. 

For Lawrence, this means that he focuses on a small group of things, trying to become an expert in them. It also means that he doesn't form many conclusions on his own, but those he does form become ingrained. 

Tonight we talked about Detroit and bankruptcy. We talked about wearing a helmet every time he rides is motorcycle. We talked about DWIs. We talked about pensions  and retirements and trusts. 

Then the conversation came full circle: Lawrence thinks that Detroit just needs to raise the fines for DWIs. In his mind, this just proves the point that Detroit can easily solve its problems. We discussed that this was not possible, there aren't enough arrests to make up 18B in shortfalls. 

But math like that isn't his strong suit. I'm sure we will go over it again soon