I wake up early (early for intersession) and decide to go to Panera Bread for a breakfast souffle and coffee. I bring my notebook to try and catch up on some work for the TSU Governing Board.
It's a beautiful day already, which always seems to bring a sense of hope. Things are starting to look up, maybe I can get through this after all. I sit next to a window to speed up the healing effects that the sun can have on a broken soul. I try to ignore the cars parked on the other side of the glass, but they are a menace and distraction, so my attention turns to a conversation at the table to my right:
...I saw my son's head [peering] above the kitchen counter as he reached for a glass of water, and asked him, 'what are you standing on over there, buddy?' He then walked around the counter---I realized he was standing on nothing...
He hadn't noticed how tall his son had grown over the years. After eavesdropping some more, I found out that the woman he was spilling his guts to was a financial adviser. The kind-faced Asian-American dad is the owner of a store and has suffered financial consequences as a result of the damaged economy.
Poor guy, I couldn't imagine having to negotiate with a stranger about my financial future. Telling someone that I've missed out on my children's lives because of being so overworked, and feeling like "my kids look at me like, 'who are you?' when I come home." I couldn't imagine being so desperate that I felt I needed to lay out all my insecurities and become completely vulnerable.
I didn't stick around for the entire conversation, it was too depressing. But I hope the glass of water became half full after the 40-something-year-old slaughtered his pride by getting help from a girl who is young enough to be his daughter.
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