On interacting with others, translated…
The hearts of the adolescent girls, very sensitive and fragile, if you’re careless, you’d, damaged it so, especially during love, they’d become those packages labeled as “Fragile, Don’t Stack Up, Handle with Care”, meaning that people should treat each other well, don’t cheat, carefully, take care of and love that heart that’s, in your palms. Afterwards, the adolescent girl became a cougar now, and, been through many battlefields, became this stone-cold heart that nothing will penetrate. But in the recent encounters, I’d felt that the hearts of middle aged women are even more fragile than the hearts of the adolescent girls.
Awhile ago, I’d gone to a certain community to visit a friend, there were a lot of the nurses’ aides pushing the elderly out on wheelchairs, as I made my way into the elevator, I told a woman I saw inside, “There are so many elderly who lived alone now.”, I saw her face turn color, she’d asked me angrily, “You’re, talking about me, aren’t you?”, I was shocked, how’s that possible! I’d never met her before in my life, I’d not known about her life, why would she just, fit herself into the slots? I’d, fallen silent, and, pressed the button for the next floor, made my exit quick as I could.
not my photograph…
There was one more time I’d bumped into a former coworker on the streets, I’d not known her well from before, but, I was really glad to see her, but, she’d started ranting at me, “You’d written a story about me hadn’t you? Told of how my husband was having an affair, and I was, the last to know.”, I was still wondering, then, she’d started ranting at me, “I’d divorced years ago, I shouldn’t have become so focused in my career that I’d, overlooked him. I feel helpless too, my parents fell ill, and my siblings stayed far off, it’s all on my shoulders, how can I, not take up the responsibilities?” She’d started crying now, and now, I’m more than certain, that this, was the very first time I’d heard her told me her story, but, would she believe me? Apparently, she was, hurt bad, by her husband’s affair and divorce, I’d mistaken it as some smaller notions, and, she’d held a grudge ever since, and, as she spoke of the past, her heart bled again.
My classmate from community college lost her husband many years ago, at age sixty, she’d met a widower, she’d spoken of him a lot, I couldn’t help but ask, “What does he look like? Couldn’t be bald, with a belly flop, could he?”, I’d not watched my lips regularly, and my classmate already knew this about me, but that day, she’d acted so weird, straightened her face, “Yup, he is, BALD and with a belly flop, how can you make fun of him like that?”. I knew I’d misspoken again, and stressed how I just, blurted the words out, without running it over my mind first, but, what’s said was said, and can’t be unsaid. I kept apologizing, she felt hurt over and over, and over again, love or friendship, she’d chosen, the former.
For this, I’d felt regretful, for a while, I’d, stopped talking out of turn, keeping my silence is, the best way now. I’d thought, that as middle aged ladies, we’d weathered through the hardships of life, but, no matter how old a woman gets, she will always have a heart made of glass, maybe I’m like so too.
“Fragile, handle with care”. I’d ripped that label on the package off, stuck it to my desk, as a reminder to myself, that I’d needed to, think twice, before I wrote anything, to bite my tongue a little from here on out.
how fragile, NOT my drawings…
So, this, is how someone’s careless words hurt someone else, and, perhaps, the individual blurting out those words never meant anything by it, but to the ears of the listener, it’d, sounded too harsh, and, there’s that sensitivity that’s easily overlooked, that can hurt us easily, so, we must, ALL be very careful what we’re saying to each other…
Life, the Obstacle Course 