Enough with Worry
I originally posted this in 2009. While reading today, I decided it hasn't expired yet! Worry sits on the back row of the English as a Second Language class. He’d prefer the front row, but by the time he caught the city bus and endured the evening traffic, the best seats were taken. His hands still smell of diner dishwater where Worry worked since six this morning. Within twelve hours he’ll be at the sink again, but for now he does his best to make sense of verbs, adverbs, and nouns. Everyone else seems to get it. He doesn’t. He never diagrammed a sentence in Spanish; how will he ever do it in English? Yet with no English how will he ever do more than wash plates? Worry has more questions than answers, more work than energy, and thinks often about giving up. Worry thinks her son should wear a scarf. Today’s temperature won’t warm beyond freezing, and she knows he will spend the better part of his lunch hour throwing a football across the frozen grass. She knows better than