Try on your dad’s work boots someday. They’ll feel heavy. That’s the point.

There are facts that only arrive through your body. You can be told that somebody stands all day and understand nothing, and then put the boots on and feel what has been on his feet for twenty years. Weight is information. It explains the quiet at dinner better than any conversation would.

Put them on, walk around the house for ten minutes, and notice your back by the end. Then ask him something you have not asked: what is the hardest hour of the day. If there are no boots in your house, there is some equivalent object, and it is worth picking up.