I had a very interesting thing happen today. Yes, all of our nerves are getting frayed. The tailor across the parking lot moved in next to my studio. With the social distancing the owner has had her kids there with her. There has been enough screaming and loud noises that we were getting weary. A young college senior who is helping me do some marketing asked today if we heard screaming. I told her it was the children and maybe a baby next door. She asked if she could go tell them to be quiet.
I said I would do it. I went in with a smile on my face and said I was just trying to communicate that the screaming was getting tiring. I said I knew that all of us were just getting tired. Then this sweet little boy about 8 years old stepped out from a place I couldn’t see. He looked at me with the sweetest smile and softest voice and said, “I’m so sorry.” His mom said to him, “See, I told you to be quiet.” I asked him what grade he was in and he said it was the second time he has done second grade. His sister in the back pointed out she had finished first grade right on time. “My sister’s name is Julia and my name is Joshua,” he said. I told him that my name was Cindy and that I used to teach school. They quickly were no longer the screaming kids next door, but the sweet children that were trying their best to be quiet while inside their mom’s shop all day as she tried to work.
We need to interact with each other. We need to know names and sweet smiles and be kind to one another. As I left she offered me two masks she had made from scraps of material since she didn’t have much work right now. She said younger people can use the internet and buy masks but older people might have trouble and she wanted to be sure the older people had masks.
I walked in tired and frustrated, and left with a soft spot in my heart.
I wish you could have seen his sweet face. No one, not even his mother, told him to step out. He just did it on his own. When I was leaving the studio, they were loading their van to go home. I told him it was the weekend and why didn't we both scream all weekend. He smiled with the biggest smile.