I'm a bellman at a hotel and about six months ago, I witnessed something that has been on repeat in my mind.
Simply put, a man came into the hotel, checked in, then walked back out to his car. He opened the door and looked at his child in the backseat, erasing the blank emotions from his face and replacing them with wide eyes, a large smile, and some happy chatter.
However, the second that he closed the car door to get back into his own seat in his car, those expressions had left his face as quickly as they came and he got into his own seat and drove away.
The dichotomy between his expressions is burned in my mind.
This experience wasn't all that profound. I believe it is the connotative meaning of this event that has left an impression.
We are actors. And I can't blame myself or anyone for being one. We have figurative masks and costumes that we don in certain company and for different occasions. For this father, he puts on a performance for his child so that he can help to control his child's image of him as a father and of life in general. We want our children to grow up believing that the world is exciting and happy. Innocence is important, and we want them to have it as long as they can.
