Trip to enlightenment
When I was around 12 years old, I came across my mom sitting on the stairs leading to the second floor, crying. I had heard a loud noise, and had gone to investigate. She had fallen down the stairs, and was recovering at the bottom.
Actually, I can tell you the exact date this happened: March 7th, 1982. How's that for a memory like a steel trap?
Mom was pretty blue. Things were not going well for her, and I suspect she was quite unhappy. Divorce and three kids, a new job, an uncertain future, the weight of her world on her shoulders. No, not at all surprising she was crying.
Except to me. I was puzzled. Why would Mom be crying? I asked her. She answered. And then I told her she wasn't supposed to cry.
"Why not?"
"You're an adult. Adults don't cry."
I don't know her response, but my comment was definitely made from the ignorance and perceptions of youth. Adults didn't cry in my presence, I had seen only children cry, therefore, I believed (yes, ignorantly and stupidly) only children cried.
Mind you, this was before I started taking logic classes the following year, and it would be four more years before I learned of the concept of guilt by association.
As an adult, I laugh at the thought that adults don't cry. Been doing too much of it lately to think I could (would?) outgrow it.