My son left his cup in the sink and I nearly made it mean everything

Dear Delyara, It was one cup. One cup in a sink that already had a few things in it. One small domestic act of thoughtlessness by a teenage boy who probably wasn’t thinking at all. Under normal circumstances, I would have rolled my eyes and washed it. Yesterday it landed differently. For one stupid second, that cup stood for every way I feel taken for granted. Every task I notice before anyone else notices it. Every time I carry the small invisible ends of family life while everybody else walks on into the next hour as if things simply reset themselves by magic. I’m glad I caught it before I said something unfair. I washed the cup and kept the larger ache for myself until I could understand it better. But it shook me how quickly a single object can become a symbol when you’re already worn thin.