I really don't understand the pain of others.

an engineering researcher

 

 

His wife got severe claustrophobia after a traffic accident. She cannot stay in a train box alone. So when she returns from Tokyo to her parents' home in Hiroshima, she has no choice but to take Kodama Shinkansen where the door opens every several tens of minutes.  He says that he has stayed with her without knowing what her fear is. It is more important that how you behave after making up your mind that you cannot sympathize than to try to sympathize. 

 

June 12, 2016

from “Oriori no Kotoba” by Kiyokazu Washida, The Asahi Shimbun