Not Thinking Anymore

''Oh''

I read this small story years ago in 'The Inspirational Quote', magazine at my school library. I don't remember the author of this story so I am writing it from my memory and adding some context of my own, but honestly, whoever originally wrote it, did a wonderful job.

The sky was slowly turning from a bright blue to a mild orange, indicating the end of the day. The man was tired and the only thing in his mind was to go home and relax. A whole day of working, satisfying customers and getting scoldings from his boss, just made him yearn for his comfortable bed.

As he walked into his house, instead of a quiet, clean and serene place, he was welcomed with the exact opposite. The twins were fighting for the TV remote, loud music was pouring from his eldest son's room and his youngest was bawling from some part of the house.

The house was a mess, food spills, scattered toys, dirty dishes; a dishevelled house which needed to be fixed by him. He was drained from work but the state of the house wore him out even more. He dragged himself through the mess and slumped on the sofa. Just when he closed his eyes to take a breather and to steel up for the rest of the night, he felt a light tap on his knee.

His eyes opened up just to meet a set of blue eyes of his 5 years old daughter. Before he could say something his daughter crawled up on his lap and showed her index finger to him. He looked at her finger and then back at her daughter, shooting her a confused look and getting a bit annoyed that he couldn't even get a single moment to himself.

Judging by her father's expressions, she mumbled, '' I got hurt on my finger". He shot an inspecting look at her finger again and barely saw anything. He was thoroughly irritated by now, after working so hard throughout the day, he definitely didn't have any patience left to handle her daughter's imaginary wound.

With utmost annoyance in his voice, "What do you want me to say about that", he asked.

The little girl's eyes first widened at that question and then burrowed in contemplation. She was too small to understand the meaning of a 'rhetorical question'. Shortly after, with a spark in her eyes, she said with utter seriousness, "you could say 'oh' ".

•••••••••••••••

I find this story extremely moving. With time I understood the deep meaning it held.
Sometimes you don't have to physically do something to show that you care but mere words deliver the message. Grand gestures are not able to achieve what those small words can do.

Yes, the man was tired and yes, there was no actual injury on the girl's finger, (maybe she would have bumped it somewhere and it would have caused a little pain), and she didn't need to be nursed or bandaged, the only medication she required was the attention of her father and the words to show that he cared.

Let me tell you what my roommate does when she feels down. She asks me to feel her forehead with my palm, to check for fever. Sometimes she is actually hot, but most of the times, she is just looking for comfort.
The comfort of her mother, who is miles away from her, whom she cannot cuddle at that time.
Mostly, I make fun of her for this habit, but I get it, she just waiting for me to say "oh, you are fine, you are going to be ok". She seeks solace in these words, giving herself a small insurance that someone cares for her.

That's exactly what we all want. Even the toughest man in the world craves for that care and affection. And it may seem to everyone that they are tough and don't require any sympathetic words but, they do.

My mother doesn't expect my father's help in the kitchen, but she does want him to ask her on a daily basis, " Hey, do you need my help in the kitchen". Merely him asking her that is enough for her to know that he cares.

There are times when I am not able to help my patients with their pain or with their questions and they get it too, I am just a student and cannot be much help to them, but just because I empathized with them and said few words of consideration, they feel so grateful to me as if their pain has been alleviated.

Agree or not but we humans, irrespective of our genders, need their 'oh'. However strong we might be, it's a basic need of our body to be loved and cared for ( Maslow's theory of motivation).
I have seen people getting bitter over time, waiting for an 'oh' from someone, anyone. They wait to be understood, accepted and cherished for. And when that affection and acceptance does not come from anywhere, they build walls around them, claiming that they don't need love at all, when in reality they are the ones who need it the most.

So, summing up, guys don't be assholes. I know sometimes it's hard to be kind and caring to someone when you yourself are a wreck but a single word of empathy from your mouth can make a world's difference to a person in need.

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A/N
I suck at giving titles to my chapters.

Anyhow,
Any and all thoughts on the above topic are welcomed. Comment if you have any weird person around you like my roommate 😋.

Kindly vote if you liked the content.

I finally got 10 chapters in this book. A huge milestone for me never thought would get this far in writing it. Thank you for reading my book so far.