A Pair of Glasses

I headed to lunch at the office today seeing a colleague doing some intricate work at the dining space. I didn’t think much of it as that was a daily activity of him working on one thing or another. Until he reached his hand out toward his electronic cigarette and grabbed it together with another slightly larger box.

I wondered what was in the box since it didn’t seem like he was going to take a puff. He opened it and took out a pair of glassesーhis bifocals. And as though I were the one putting it on, suddenly, a clearer image appeared before me; something I never noticed before. His wrinkled face and weathered hands grew stark. As he rested the arms of the glasses on his ear before sliding the bridge down his nose to get a good view of the piece of work that was in his hands, I felt a rush of emotions. And if I had to choose from the characters of Inside Out, that would be Sadness. But Sadness isn’t an accurate depiction of how I feel. It was much more complex than either of the combinations of the five emotions the movie had.

Seeing that reminded me of my parents when they started doing the same thing some number of years ago, having a pair of glasses halfway hanging down their noses. I never noticed how old they’ve gotten until that happened, and I began to think how much time they’ve lost to raise me; how much of their lives they have given to make me who I am, where I am today. I wonder what is on their minds every day as they get older. Was it worth it? Did I become someone who makes them feel the time they gave was worth it? Would they have rather done things differently? Would they have rather spent more time to lead a happier, more enjoyable, less difficult life?

Perhaps this is life as it is; life as it should beーto come into this world and give our all to the ones we love and have no regrets, knowing that there can be no better way to have lived our lives.

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