Review: Lessons
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 24, 2014
This is a painful but honest short story about regret and parental responsibility.Sometimes, if we are lucky, we come to hold ourselves responsible for an act of cruelty. I realize that this doesn't sound like luck but bear with me. Many people will admit that kids can be cruel but at the same time dismiss most cruelty as "kids being kids". It is all too rare for a child to truly internalize an act of cruelty they commit against someone else and feel enough shame to not let it happen again. Many times it remains hidden deep within but not forgotten. We don't take it out for others to see but it never goes away. It's a hard lesson but, strangely enough, it makes us better people.There is one thing that is pretty much guaranteed to bring it rushing to the surface, and that is seeing our own child behave in a similar way. At that time we have choices to make. We can ignore it, we can be superficial, or we can make it a lesson that will stay with our child in the hope that they won't act in such a way that they have to live with the type of regret that we have. Not an easy decision- but certainly necessary.This author brings this point home in a quietly devastating way.