Shoelaces for Josie

The son said how proud he was of his mom, how great it was to have this experience with her and that he loved her. When it was the cousin’s turn, after a moment of silence, he softly said, “He knows.” And that was it.

Maybe he was just being macho and dorky like guys can be about warm-fuzzy emotional things. Maybe he didn’t want to get all gooey on national television. But even though it was said softly, there was such confidence and power in the two words he said, “He knows.” No elaboration. No run-on sentences of emotion. Just simple. And transparent.

Words are good. We assume too much, sometimes. We express emotion too little, sometimes. We rarely communicate as often as we should in the ways that we should. But there is something to be said for a friendship and a bond that doesn’t require words all the time. Something so powerful that it transcends the need for constant verbiage to be cluttering the air.

It’s no wonder, really, that such an interaction struck something within me enough to write about it. I am a simple person who can be just as dorky as a guy about warm-fuzzy emotional things. But that hasn’t stopped me from saving a text on my phone that says, “Dude, I know. And I don’t mind. It’s how we roll. I get it.”