stifled

I was walking out of a store, when it caught me by surprise, this wee little man, about my son’s size, some sixteen years ago. He was with his mommy, cute as it could be, he was pushing a basket, cut right in front of me, and mommy said "watch out for that man", and "here son, let me give you a hand". He was trying to put that basket away and that is when I heard her say, "let me take it from here dear", then I heard that little boy say, "let me, I can do it, mommy". This touched my heart and brought a tear to my eye, but a grown man like me is not suppose to cry, so I wiped that tear from my eye, got in my car and said "goodbye", but here is a secret between you and me, I wasn’t driving so good cause I couldn’t see, there was some kind of water in my eyes, that came from long ago. “I can do it”, that little phrase, took me back to the good old days, and the innocence of my sons youth. When we are young like that, we don’t yet know what we can’t do. It’s something that this world does teach, and I always wondered since long ago, if we were not told at an early age of all the things we can not do, how much more could we be. Why do some stifle their children in such a way. Written February 26th, 2002 © on Feb 26 2002 01:30 AM PST   0 • 10