The Elephant Comes Unbidden

While at the local home improvement store today, I saw a father picking out bathroom fixtures. His son, looking to be 7 or 8 years old, was asking questions. I observed the boy ask several questions, and I watched his father repeatedly ignore him. Finally, exasperated, the father snapped, “Would you shut up already? I’m trying to do something here!” The boy slumped noticeably, as if someone had taken all the air out of him. I saw his eyes well up with tears and, as he turned away from his father, I caught his eye. We locked vision for a few seconds, and I felt such a heaviness come over me. It was only later, when I had wandered away, that I realized I had stopped breathing with the weight of it.

I acknowledge that, due to my own childhood experiences, this probably affected me more than the average person.