MIssed Opportunity

On Saturday, November 28, we went to Wapato Park in Tacoma to take some photos for Philip and Stephanie and Jesse. Took lots of photos of the whole family. While we were there Jesse was swinging on the swings and Jude was playing on the slides, both carefully watched over by their fathers. There was a family consisting of a young black man, a young white girl, and two kids, a boy and a girl. Both kids looked to be mixed race, so maybe this was the mother and father, maybe even married to each other.

Before I noticed them, the boy must have done something that angered the young man, because he cursed the boy, grabbed him and carried him to the lake edge and held him up as if to throw him into the water. He was very angry and cursing loudly. I immediately thought of shooting some pictures of him and the little boy with my telephoto lens. I thought about potential photographic evidence if he hurt the boy badly. When he saw people were noticing he put the boy down and went and stood by the swings as the little girl swung. He looked to be seething with anger and frustration. As the young woman walked past me she looked at me briefly and then dropped her eyes as if embarrassed and helpless. She stood beside the angry man and linked her arm in his as if to try and calm him.

The boy played on the slide fixture and was obviously distressed. He made a repeated sound kind of like a gasp or groan. The man stood by the swings looking hard and angry. I thought of going to him and speaking. I thought of possible scenarios of what I could do or say, how it might go wrong. I thought of a whole series of excuses for my inaction. I won’t list them here because I can think of them again whenever I need them. Uncertainty, inconvenience, excuses. I did nothing. I feel regretful about this.

There is so much pain in the world. I’m living in a Garage Door opener world. When I am confronted with the painful reality of life I’m slow to respond.

It bothers me that I didn’t get involved with the angry young man and his frightened, hurting family. Missed opportunity. I wonder if the angry young man beat his wife and the boy later that night. I’m sorry.

There’s a time when this would have haunted me and driven me into depression and self-recrimination. Something’s changed. I really believe that God loves me and he hasn’t put me on the blacklist for missing the opportunity. I feel bad about it, but still confident in God’s love for me and for the man in the park. And I want to do better next time.