"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

A father and son
February 12, 2010 - 4:48 pm

At the table next to me was, I presume, a father and son. The father was something like 70 and the son something like 50... the son was, I'm guessing, autistic.

They were sitting.. the father reading some magazine, the son looking all over the place watching people move about the store. They sat in silence... the father having his right hand out in the middle of the table and the son hold it. As the son turned this way and that, he'd switch the hand he used to hold his father's hand.

At some point, the father stopped reading and said, "Robert, are you ready to go?"

Robert tapped the magazine and said, "Read."

The father repeated the question with the wording slightly changed a time or two. Each time.. Robert said "Read."

The tact was switched, "Robert do you need the bathroom?"

Robert made a low moaning sort of noise and tapped the magazine.

Father said, "You like it here, don't you?" Robert moaned in reply.

At this point, the father started to mirror the moan. Each time Robert did it, the father would too. I don't know if it was on purpose or not.

Another round of asking Robert if he wanted to go. Another round of moans of "read". Clearly, the father was ready to go.. and the son was not.

The father relented and started to read again. The son went back to looking this way and that.

I don't know why.. but it just struck me as an oddly touching scene. Perhaps five minutes in all.

I am left to wonder how many times it's been repeated...