Dad, Why Is He Crying

Sometimes, we cry about things that should be Sometimes, we cry about things that should not be Sometimes, we cry about things we thought would be, but never in our life time. And when they happened, we were overwhelmed to the point of joyful tears. Such tears became the source of an inquiry from my son. Very sincerely, my son once asked me, “Dad. Why is he crying”? My son had seen an African American man, crying at a 711 Store. This happened on the night of a historical election in America. An African American had just become the new President of the United States, a first occurrence in America. And my son, who was 31 years of age, saw this senior citizen crying. He wanted to know from me the reason why. I said to my son that I understood the reason for the tears. I said to my son that the African American man that was crying has lived through a lot of American history, and experienced much discrimination, injustice, and in some places in America, racial hatred. Perhaps he was overwhelmed with the reality of an African American President in his life time. He knew that it would happen ‘someday’, but not this day on the second Tuesday of November, 2008. As if I had not answered his question, my son asked me a second time, “But dad, why is he crying? Will he be invited to the White House for dinner?” I told my son that it wasn’t likely that he would be invited for dinner at the White House. Although also African American, I had not voted for the new president elect, and have views vastly different from the crying man. But I understood, because I had walked in similar shoes as did that gentleman. I also felt and understood that no manner of explanation would make my son understand the crying, because the two of them walked in different shoes at different times; and the times had now changed. At least for my son, this time, the tears were not easy to understand. cj10142015