Fragile: A post about glass.

via Daily Prompt: Fragile

My best friend F came to town recently for a week’s holiday. It’s always wonderful having her around, because living in different countries makes for interesting conversation and catching up when she’s home. We don’t talk often when she’s away. Having recently moved into my own little one bedroom flat, I was thrilled to have her at my place.

Last weekend, we went out shopping with the girls after meeting up for lunch at a fancy restaurant. While at the mall, the girls purchased various items and I found it odd that L was carrying a new set of glass tumblers, which she has just purchased at the supermarket inside the mall. When we got home, she handed me the set of drinking glasses and said,  “A little housewarming gift.”

I suppose my face must have betrayed my lack of enthusiasm at the sudden gift. That’s because I’d already bought a set of tumblers for myself, which remained unboxed, on a top shelf in my tiny kitchen. I rarely had anyone over and the one tumbler that I had from as far back as I can remember met my needs. I can’t blame her though, because she hadn’t noticed. A couple of days later, she went back home.

Only then did I realise that my trusty lone tumbler was missing in action. It then hit me, that’s why F bought a new set for me. She must have broken it at some point during her stay at my place and felt guilty about it, hence the new set. I was a little miffed, not because of the broken tumbler, but that my friend didn’t trust me enough to mention it to me.

It got me thinking about how we sometimes tend to tip toe around people’s feelings, afraid to say things because we think them fragile or overly sensitive. Maybe it’s because we ourselves are fragile and just want to avoid confrontations or awkward situations. The truth is though, hiding our true selves from each other only results in disillusionment, when the other person eventually finds out who we really are. And therein lies the fear of exposure. We’re all fragile in one way or another.