Emotional Fleas

I once attended some sort of event, perhaps a theatrical performance or college graduation, in an indoor stadium. And as Beth and I sat in our otherwise comfortable seats in the stands, suddenly I felt something jump on me. Literally jump on me. Suddenly the thing was crawling up my arm. And then another one. And another one.

Fleas!!!

I looked to my left, and noted a middle-aged man wearing a white woolen sweater. It was then that I noticed several minute insects crawling among the fibers of his cardigan. He was apparently a “carrier,” as no doubt he had one or more rather miserable pooches at home. 

Since I wasn’t keen to serve as a taxi for fleas, my wife and I immediately got up and found another place to sit.

Fast forward a couple of decades.

As a Christian therapist I have provided counsel to thousands of men and women, boys and girls, but among that myriad of people I have never been so impacted as I was by one woman in particular. 

“Sophia” was perhaps 60 years of age at the time, and was the mother of a mentally ill son; (and as with her son, there was some cognitive aberration there). Of course, given my work with “Samuel,” from time to time I brought her into my office for a consult.

Emotional Drainage

The only phrase I have for it. 

There was just something about her presence and words. Sitting with her absolutely drained me. And to make things worse, during that little season Sophia tended to call me once or twice a week, and rattled on incessantly. Not unlike Jesus, when the woman with the issue of blood touched his robe, and he felt power going out of Him. 

(Although admittedly, I’m no Jesus).

In the case of the flea-bitten gentleman he unwittingly “shared” something tangible, though wholly negative, with me that night. In the case of this troubled mother, she drained something intangible, but all too viable from me.

While neither scenario was all that pleasant, I would choose the real fleas over the emotional ones any day.


 By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 27. Copyright pending

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