Faced with my past, sort of.

[crisispoint]

While I was assembling the Sunday papers early that morning, I saw a father and son doing the same thing at another station at the depot (no, we don't bring 'em home to do it. Too big a job for car routes ). The boy wasn't much older than 13, and was pudgy and soft-looking like I was at that age.

I started wondering if he had a good relationship with his father. Was he picked on at school. Could he talk to anyone about anything. Had anyone tried to take advantage of him yet.

God, the things we think about when we've been through this! I wanted to ask this boy, who I've never met and wouldn't have except through this quirk of fate, all these questions, wanted to warm him about people who'd take advantage of him, tell him he deserved to grow up without being hurt.

How did I KNOW if he was being hurt in some way? I don't, but because he reminded me of me at that age, I feared for him.

I fear for kids today, everyday. I fear for myself because the animals out there would try to take advantage of me still as a grown adult, simply because I'm an emotional raw-nerve and can be vulnerable at times.

*sigh* It was a good weekend, but these thoughts always happen then......

Scot

 

[outis]

Scot,

I know what you mean. I walked out of a Barnes and Noble store a couple weeks ago, and I held the door for the people behind me. A woman and a small boy, probably about 3 years old. He had been crying in the store and was crying on his way out. She started yelling that he wasn't going to get any tissues because she didn't have any. He stood outside the store crying.

I went to my car and got a handful of tissues, then caught up to them and told her, "I overheard that you didn't have any tissues." She still refused them, saying that she had some in her car. The boy was quietly sniffling by now.

Is she just frustrated from a long day with a cranky child? Or is he living a nightmare? Do "normal" people even have these kinds of questions occur to them?

Joe

 

[ecb]

I know how you feel, I have these kinds of thoughts occur to me all the time when I see kids. It tears me up to know that some of the kids I'm seeing are already living through the kind of hell we did. I want to help and protect them, I just don't know how it can be done.

Glad to see it's not just me who feels like this though.

Eric

 

[Leosha]

Yes, Scot, I can relate to that. I think maybe everyone here can. I will see a boy who looks like I did some, or who moves in a certain way, and I wonder same things. I wonder also when I see what appears to be a good and happy family, I worry if it is real. I think always, we will be colored some in our emotions and responses, based on our pasts. Hopefully some day, we will be able to see good and decent families and believe them true. Be good to yourself Scot, and that small boy you once were and still are sometime.

Leosha