In Your Stead

The idea of having a proxy to take the place of no-show principal sponsors at weddings amuses, if not baffles me. Not that there's anything strange about it, but just because the idea could not be applied to the different facettes of our complex lives. If only one person could take the place of another who nurses a broken heart, or someone whose cross is unbelievably unbearable. I wish even just once we could all experience someone else's pains - how they are constantly tortured by vacuous concerns that leave them in a darkened, festering state of being. I would give up happy thoughts to have a glimpse of the world through eyes blurred by tears. Maybe then I would understand, maybe then questions would have answers. To walk the thorny path in your stead for just one day would be my highest wish.