All in This Together

By: Smiley Face Now

I am usually a glass half empty kind of person.  I try to see the best in people and situations, but I always have a plan B in case things go south.  My faith in humanity was restored the other day and though wet to the bone and shivering, I smiled to myself.

I was at my daughter’s softball game the other evening, and it was a cool almost raw spring evening.  The sky was overcast, rain threatened at any minute and there was a constant fine misty drizzle to make all of us parents miserable as we watched our little angels catch pneumonia.  At least that was how I saw things.  Well the game progressed and things stayed the same for almost an hour and a half.  Then the inevitable happened, it started to pour.  Now there is a reason I am a glass half empty kind of guy.  Every time I go glass half full, I get soaked.  I did not bring the umbrella I had in my truck (parked several hundred yards away) because I thought we would get the game in before the storm.  I was wrong.

So as the heavens open and rain comes, a torrential rain at that, I am left standing with no umbrella, no hat, and a now soaked cotton sweatshirt sucking the heat away from me.  Some parents ran, some opened umbrellas they were smart enough to bring with them and some, like me, looked around forlornly.  The kids were snug in their dugouts and the ump decided to wait a bit before calling the game, so I was stuck.  Just before I was about to bust a move back to the truck, across the now muddy field, one of the parents, a man I had seen around town but didn’t really know, walked up to me with his golf (large) umbrella and without saying a word covered me with half of the umbrella.  And of course he said, “I don’t think the heavy stuff will come down for a while.”  Now if you are of a certain age, I do not have to place that quote for you; but for the others who may not know, it is a famous and often used quote from the movie Caddyshack.  As you could imagine, my new best friend and I smiled to each other.  Oh, the rain let up after a while and girls finished the game – our team lost a squeeker by one run.