Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Self Consciousness

We were walking through Denver airport. It was warm, almost stifling, and our pace was a healthy clip. It was my husband, my 4-year-old son, and me. My son was holding my hand. He was obviously getting steamy inside his down-filled jacket.

As we walked, I asked him, "Would you like to take off your jacket? It's pretyy hot in here. Isn't it?"

As soon as I finsihed my question. My son stopped cold in his track answered with only one word, "NO!"

I stopped, turned, looked at him with concern. "Are you sure? What's the matter with taking off your jacket?"

"Then everyone will be able to see what color my shirt is," said my painfully shy little boy.

Since that day, "seeing what color my shirt is" has been my definition of self-consciousness.
--me strauss Letting me be

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your son was right. There are some things that nobody else needs to know. I can totally relate to his thought process. There are some people I just don't want to have that much information about me. So there.

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Thank you. My son was a wise little boy who sensed things about people. It was such a lovely metaphor from such a shy child. I had to keep it alive from then on.

The Sanity Inspector said...

[s]
Our small son is a little fashion plate. He cries if his Mommy makes him wear colors he doesn't like.

"ME" Liz Strauss said...

Ah yes,
My som son wouldn't wear any shirts that didn't have letters on them. :)