Comments on: Carp Stories: Crab Apple Tree

By: Kyddryn

Kyddryn — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:32:28 +0000

Children are often cruel as they sort themselves out. It is not with intent, but unconscious, as easy as breathing and as meaningless to them.

As children, we are walking egos, little sociopaths largely without empathy until we come to realize that our fellow denizens in this world are separate from us, contained within themselves and capable of the same feelings we have.

Almost no one escapes childhood without that wistful “If only I could have done it better…”

Suicide isn’t about the ones left behind…it’s about coming to a place where one cannot bear to live their life as it is any more, cannot see any other way out, cannot bear the pain or burden of hope one more moment.

These stories of yours are lovely…bittersweet chocolate melting on the tongue, puckering the mind a little even as they fulfill a craving one never knew was there. Thank you.

Shade and Sweetwater,
K

By: anymommy

anymommy — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:51:21 +0000

My heart, ouch. I think (hope?) that we all threw a few crab apples as kids that hit too hard. I wish I could protect my kids from being bruised and keep them from throwing, but I know I probably can’t.

By: foradifferentkindofgirl (fadkog)

foradifferentkindofgirl (fadkog) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:44:26 +0000

There’s a girl named Heather out there somewhere int the world who probably didn’t enjoy some of the afternoons spent under a crab apple tree in my backyard that I wonder about sometimes. Because she could dish it out a bit more viciously than I’ve ever been able to muster, I wonder if she ever wonders about me.

By: jenni

jenni — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:03:37 +0000

love this story. very well done.

By: kyooty

kyooty — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:49:22 +0000

this migght explain some of the angry voices in my back yard?

By: Lis Garrett

Lis Garrett — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:23:32 +0000

I had two neighborhood friends who, for whatever reason, would gang up on me whenever the three of us played together. I’ll never forget the day (we were 8) when Kristy would not stop taunting me, and I gave her a good smack across the face. And it’s not like I planned it or anything. It was purely an instinctual moment. As as wrong as I knew that was, even then, it felt really good to stand up for myself in some way.

I have a 10-yr-old daughter. She’s been involved in some sort of “friend drama” nearly every year she’s been in school. And my 7-yr-old son has been sent home from play dates before for being too aggressive (he’s bigger and stronger than a lot of his friends, but he’s not intentionally mean). While we can hope that kids will get along and they’ll always be nice and never bully . . . it’s just not realistic. But I agree with Amanda; we can do our best to teach our children how to behave responsibly toward others.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:35:07 +0000

I know it’s easy to say but some of that WAS part of growing up and some of growing up IS realizing that, well, sometimes we just weren’t very nice to each other and vowing to ourselves that, as an adult that we WON’T act that way and that we WILL try and impart more of a sense of responsibility of our actions to our children.

These are things that define us as adults, at least to me.
You do the best you can with the tools you have at the time.