To my children
It’s been hot for few days. Number of people wearing short pants has increased. But I won’t be wearing one this summer, either. I will be wearing long pants as I always have been. Matter of fact, I do not own a single pair of shorts.
I believe I was about 12-13 years old. I used to wear shorts during the summer until then. I am not sure whether my father was in a bad mood that day or maybe he had been thinking about it for some time. I was wearing shorts that day. All my siblings went to school and I was home with my father and mother.
My father asked my mother, in a rather harsh tone, why she would give me shorts so that I could reveal my skinny ugly legs. I don’t remember whether I changed my pants that day or next day. I do remember that was the last day I ever wore shorts.
In early 80’s, I came to America and had a shocking experience one day. I participated in a wheel-chair tennis program. There I saw a man wearing shorts with urine bag attached to his skinny leg and a woman wearing short skirts revealing her legs with severe atrophy. That man had s hose sticking under his shorts and it was connected to the bag attached to his leg dripping yellow urine drops.
Seeing them that day was a real shock to me. Nevertheless, I still do not wear shorts. It is hard to change my already formed prejudice.
I believe my father had forgotten he told me not to wear short pants. Since he passed away a couple of years ago, I would never find out. And it is not important to me anymore. What’s important is the fact that words spoken without any mean intention and a decision made without thinking could change a person’s life forever.
When I see people in short pants in hot summer day, I wonder whether my spoken words might have hurt people during last winter.