pain

i met a man today who whilst under house arrest for feeding his habit learned that his father was dead.
his mother living on the other side of the country in a wheel chair borrowed a phone in the nova scotia trailer park to let him know.
he dealt with it badly as we all will.
he called those numbers he was supposed to have burned and went down under the pipe.
i've never seen such an elderly man humbled by his own grief and guilt -
tender and tough and headed for death or prison but with such dignity.
his was the most amazing display of the dignity of genuine grief.
it's what we want from television and only from television.