“Did you poop?” is not a question I expected to hear today.
In fact, it’s not really a question I expect on any day.
But I’m not a parent.
So, while sitting in a cafe today, I was rather caught off guard when that question floated through the air. I looked up from my table by the window. Trying to seem casual, I reached up and pulled one side of my headphones off while keeping my eyes on my laptop. I’d been super entrenched in what I was working on, but now the lines of code are all blurred together because I’m not paying any attention to them whatsoever.
Across the room, a woman stood by the trash and recycling with a tote bag slung over her shoulder. She was leaning to one side to compensate for the weight of it. I followed her gaze and saw the toddler looking up at her.
I’m not sure if that’s a daughter and her mom or a nanny, but I know they’d been sitting at the table in front of mine. And, after connecting those dots, it dawns on me that the woman just asked this girl if she pooped.
“Yethp”
Daww the confidence!
Now I’m smiling. But I’m trying not to let on that I’m onto them. I mean, they’re not being covert or anything—I’m actually quite impressed with how normal this back-and-forth feels.
“Do you want to go to the bathroom?”
“... uh huh... YA!”
So the woman and the girl depart, and I’m sitting at the table thinking about one very specific time from when I was a wilderness guide. While on trips we’d do this thing called “Doctor’s In” where I’d chat with folks one-on-one about how they were doing. Any blisters? Drinking enough water? Any nerves or mental fatigue worth talking about? And, yes—have you pooped? So now I’m thinking of the time during a trip near Yellowstone with a group of teenagers when someone had lied to me about their “ins and outs.”
That’s something I only discovered after we reached the point of having to medically evacuate them. I ended up having to escort this person out of the backcountry and then drive many, many hours to the emergency room. That’s when the doctors had to give them an enema.
Shaking my head, my eyes find their way back to my laptop screen.
That little girl didn’t lie when asked, and for that, the woman definitely gets some kudos. I wish I’d known how to create a safe enough space on that Yellowstone trip for that person to be honest with me.
Shit happens, I guess.
Our Daily MAP Year Prompt
352/365
When's the last time you felt scared to tell someone the truth? Why?
onward.
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