Monday, August 23, 2021

On blessing

 

People-watching, on the third of four trains today: a family join the train, mum, dad, teenage girl, pre-adolescent boy. The dad’s forearms are covered with tattoos of satanic symbols and images. He wears a t-shirt depicting a children’s cartoon character above the legend MOTHERF*CKERS [with asterisk] and complains that his wife has not allowed him to wear his Charlie Uniform November Tango t-shirt instead.

The son sneezes, three times. Each time, the father responds, Bless you.

It feels...incongruous.

Is he performing an exorcism of angels? Or is blessing something that will not let go of us, even if we seek to reject its baggage?

 

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