Agony is sometimes the reverse side of stupidity.

Aya Kouda

The writer found a boy a job long ago. He was through a lot at the place of employment and then in the battlefields, but never forgetting her "kindness", he visits her several times a year. Any painful feeling is not clear until time goes by. Sometimes, later, you are amazed with yourself like "Did I feel terrible about such a silly thing?"  She says that she thought about the depth of his agony from these words he said casually. From an essay, "Wrap." 

"March 6  2019

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