A Triumphant(?) Return

I stopped writing a blog ages ago.  Then I stopped writing columns for newspapers. Then I tried to quit Facebook. It sucked me back in.  I do tweet from time to time.


I decided today to work my way back into writing on purpose more often.  Writing things which do nothing but sit on my hard drive (the completed play, the partial plays, the oft revisited novel, etc.) is only part of the fun. So, I resurrected an old blog title and am going to give it a go.

There is hope that people read this and throw a comment my way once in a while but I am going to try to write stuff and toss it into the world for the sake of writing.

ENTRY #1
I don't think of myself as an emotional person but I get choked up often.  I cry at TV shows (yes, I like This is Us) and movies more easily than most people.

With the seeming exponential growth of anger and meanness in the world I have now taken to getting choked up when I see basic human kindness.  This should not be the case because being nice should be the norm not the exception.

The other day I was running a quick errand at the grocery store.  I heard a toddler crying.  It was not a "I want the candy fit throwing" sort of crying.  It was the "I pinched my finger something awful or I stubbed my toe wicked hard genuine tears" sort of crying.

I turned the corner of the aisle and the mom (I don't know she was the mom but if she was a kidnapper with evil intent it ruins the whole story) was squatting down next to the emotional little boy.  She was comforting him, not fussing at him to be quiet, dragging him behind the cart nor was she telling him to suck it up and get moving. She was speaking quietly to him, looking directly into his eyes with her hands on his shoulders.   She was being kind, realistic, honest, and empathetic.  I started crying. (Yes, I teared up a little writing that paragraph.)

I did not go to the woman to be comforted myself because in the current climate it could have been construed as harassment and I would have lost my job as the host of a network morning show.