“Oh!” Baylee said. “Now I see the onions.”
He was in the kitchen and had just reached over to give me a hug. I was chopping veggies to make a mirepoix: a mix of onion, carrots, and celery. (I’m making potato cheddar soup to put into sourdough bowls for dinner today.)
“Did you think I smelled bad?” I asked.
“I mean, I really thought for a minute you did,” he answered, laughing.
“Would you have told me?”
“No!” he answered, thinking he said the right thing.
Anyone who knows me knows I love to give a lecture. Sorry, all. It’s genetic.
“So you would have let me go into public smelling bad?”
“Um . . . ” Lecture continued.
It’s so difficult, isn’t it? We don’t want to give bad news to people we love. We don’t want to say “Here’s a tissue” or “Maybe you should put on some deodorant” do we?
Our society is resistant to this type of behavior. We simply have to choose between our own embarrassment or theirs. It’s easier to pretend we don’t notice, and toss them out to the hungry sharks.
I’m guilty of doing it in the past, but trust me, These days I will tell you if you have a booger in your nose.
Teresa Forester Adams 