14 May 2010

In Touch With Your Inner Child??

I was coming home from Downtown DC, one afternoon this week. I was deep in thought as I left the Metro and crossed the street toward my car.
I was contemplating the afternoon meeting at a law office, my latest job application, the new website that a friend and I are building together, whether I should get my hair cut, how the Universe was formed and....


...what kind of deep-seated emotional need and insecurity would motivate a woman suck her thumb after the age of four? I didn't stop her to ask, so I guess we'll just never know.

4 comments:

Carla said...

I saw this not infrequently down the street at our local elementary school. The first few times, I was taken aback. Grown black women, walking into the school to pick up a child. With her thumb in her mouth.
Must be a cultural thing.

Marti said...

I'm sure there are white women who do it, too. And Asians. And in your neck of the woods, a few Armenians.

I'm just surprised that if someone has such feelings and needs that they actually are stable enough to leave the house.

A good curl up and cry at the bottom of one's closet might be helpful once in awhile, but to be that needy and be able to get outside the door is interesting to me.

I wish I'd gotten a picture of a woman's jeans here yesterday, Carla. I stopped, stared and giggled. :) You would have, too.

Kimm said...

And here I was just guessing a cut or hangnail or something - I do this just to keep from getting blood all over everything. But then I'm pretty regularly clueless!

Marti said...

I walked by her, did a double-take and was fairly close in my observation. She's sucking her thumb. I did back up to take the picture because I didn't actually want to make her feel uncomfortable (or for anyone to be able to identify her based on my picture).

I feel for her, because I wonder what her story is: what sort of life do you have to have to be doing that past the age of um, 12, right, Carla?