The parent question

   My wife and I went to a party a few months ago in a very secluded neighborhood on one of the hills I had never visited here in San Francisco. Held in a house that felt architecturally open and appeared to be expensively appointed, the occasion for the party was to celebrate and welcome the new principle at one of the schools where she teaches part-time.
   I don't do well with crowds in general, and as we walked in I encountered what appeared to be a large one. I felt overwhelmed, despite the modern, sparse, and what I would imagine would normally feel airy quality of the house design.
   We managed to get a little food (all of the catered items had detailed descriptions next to them), and I found the backyard, which allowed me to breathe a bit better. Fernanda introduced me to a few people, and as we snacked, we wondered what all of the people had in common. She said that she imagined that most must be parents of children at the school, and went to get us a bit more food.
   It seems that she was correct.
   A man came up to me and introduced himself in the way that people do that seem much more comfortable around strangers than I ever have ever been, and asked me what grade my child was in at the school. I told him that I don't have any children, nor did my wife as far as I knew, and told him that she was a teacher there. He told me that his child was in their "third year", and although I didn't exactly know what that meant, I nodded and smiled. I was probably close to twenty years older than him.
   Although the assumption that I had children is not new to me (many of the nurses and caregivers where I work have supposed the same thing), this particular one made a strong, albeit less-than-conscious impression on me. I don't know why it affected me differently this time, but it did.
   Perhaps it was the sense that Fernanda and I were the only adults among one hundred or more people at the house that didn't have children, or maybe I intuited that we were poorer than everyone else, but it stirred something strange within my consciousness, and unusually for me in a situation such as this, I felt satisfied in my life rather than lacking.
   I can't explained why I felt like I did. I think I'll just leave it at that.