It Is Often the Little Nothingnesses
Posted: Wednesday, September 28, 2011
by The Old Gray Mare
www.DressYourHorse.com
I’ve come a long way from being the bashful, sensitive kid I once was.
Life is a series of lessons, one after the other. Each leaves a bit of an impression upon which the next experience is built. Let it never be said, I didn’t learn my lessons. Some might say I learned them too well.
This is a tiny remembrance in my life. Obviously it made an impression on me or I would not still be remembering it. Darned if I know why some of these fleeting moments come back to me.
It was close to Easter and I was coming out of church. Located in suburban Pittsburgh, PA, St. Elizabeth was in Pleasant Hills. The church sat on a hill and quite a few steps led up into the massive front doors. I had been to Saturday confession and was coming down those steps. Many people were making their Easter duty on that Saturday, and I was running late to meet my brother. It was chilly on this day and I was wearing a suit – soft lavender – with purple shoes and purse. In those days, we wore gloves and hats to church – those were lavender too. I felt pretty.
I had to make my way down the steps and down a fairly steep hill to meet him at a small neighborhood grocery store at the bottom. Stepping lively, hurrying along, I looked and felt great, thought I had completed an important task and was getting a ride to meet my parents for dinner.
My brother was talking to a friend. As I neared their cars, I heard, “Wow, she looks just like an Easter egg.” They laughed.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
“What did you say?” I said to them, and not all that softly.“Ha ha ha! Where’d you get an Easter egg to wear? You can try to hide, but you won’t be able to hide. You’ll glow purple in the dark!”
To say I was feeling incensed, and right after confession, was to put it mildly. I wanted to yell at both of them. Instead, I stood there and began to cry. Those two brats knew they had hurt my feelings and, now, came out with appeasements.
“You look real pretty,” said my brother.
“Just drive me home. Don’t say anything to me, or I’ll have to go back to confession because, because …,” I trailed off.
Silly isn’t it? It’s often the little nothingnesses of life that come to mind.
The Old Gray Mare writes for www.DressYourHorse.com and her Blogs.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Yes. Those little nothingnesses stay in our heart like prickly steel shavings around which we have grown scar tissue. And then every once in awhile we remember it. It's still there. We can't do anything about it except add scar tissue. It's there for your soul to contemplate, muse over and get philosophical about.
Yours,
ChristoferYou said it much better than I did. But that is the whole point. Scar tissue covers but never really gets rid of it.
There seem to be an abundance of thoughtless people out there who make themselves feel big by attempting to make someone else feel small. You weren't being too sensitive, they weren't being sensitive enough. Jerks!
My sister-in-law lives in Pleasent Hills.
Children can be cruel, and almost everyone has been on the receiving end, at one time or the other. And as children are; most have been the one who said something hurtful, too. You touch on the reality of childhood, and it's unfair moments. I bet you looked great in purple.
Nice article, it captures our humanity, with all it's rawness.
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