After dinner the other evening, Jim asked if we could make a quick stop at Giant Eagle. I pulled into the lot and waited in the car while he went in.
A few moments later, with much shouting and slamming of doors, a mother and her young son got into the truck next to my car. The child was crying and inconsolable – and whatever happened in the store continued in the truck.
She continued to shout at him, saying things like: “You can’t blame everything on your ADD,” and “I can’t even go grocery shopping because of you,”
Neither of these things helped the kid settle down, obviously, and he continued to cry.
Then it was, “Shut up, shut up, shut up!”
Suddenly, there was loud rock music coming from the truck and I looked over, startled. The woman was sitting in the front seat with the radio cranked up and her fingers in her ears – still trying to drown out the crying child.
I sat in my car, trying to figure out what to do. I’m not really trained for this and I’m not a parent – and I have no idea what’s really going there. Other than everyone involved being beyond their wits end.
Was there anything I could do that wouldn’t make this worse – especially since the kid wasn’t being physically hurt? Could I intervene and de-escalate? Or would things get worse if she felt shamed?
So, we sat there. A crying child, an angry mother, and a conflicted bystander.
And we were still there when Jim came back to my car and the father came back to the truck.
I hoped that the father would be able to settle things down, but I wasn’t really confident about that.
We drove off and my heart was kind of broken for all of them.
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After a difficult week of work, I decided to take today off. I was still up bright and early, though, and hopped into my kilt and boots to take myself for a hike. I went to a nearby park that has a trail I like and started walking.
I couldn’t really escape the noise of cars from the nearby streets. And though I tried to avoid other people that didn’t really work either – though I did give the ones I saw a polite “good morning,”
There were a couple times that I was alone on the trail and the wind through the trees – and thankfully up my kilt – was enough to drown out the traffic. At one such time, I also found a couple ripe blackberries that I ate.
It was what I needed.
I noticed this trip – more than usual – that I’m not an “off the beaten path” kind of guy. Not only did I stay on the trail, I stayed on the same trail I always take. Creature of habit, I guess.
After my hike, I made a stop at giant eagle and got some peaches and a cold drink. And when I got home, I sat on my porch and had my breakfast before going on with my day.
I need to do this more often while I have the chance. And maybe next time, I’ll try a different path.