The Bumbershoot
New York, in the rain, is a sea of black bumbershoots. There have been so many famous pieces of art depicting this phenomenon – but being here and experiencing it in real life is a whole different thing.
Today was another rainy March day – I love rainy days here. Everyone hustles around like everyone always does, but this time, everyone (or almost everyone) has their own personal dry oasis under their own personal umbrella. It is one way to keep people from crushing into each other, but it is also not unusual to get in umbrella bashing conflicts. Mine was definitely jousted around a few times.
Where I’m from, Utah, we rarely, if ever, use umbrellas. I guess that’s because we’re always in our cars so we don’t need them from the dash from car to building. But in New York, deciding to brave the ferry and busses to get to my grandbaby today, I brought out my new, and as yet, unused umbrella which was a gift from my son and his wife.
It is a lovely, elegant umbrella, with a long handle with a hook on the end. I walked to the ferry with it furled, as the weather hadn’t yet broken, and I tried all of the ways to carry it. I put it up over my shoulder, I stuck it under my arm with the point pointing backwards. I hung the hook on my arm. I considered wielding it like a light saber when I encountered other people with their unfurled umbrellas….I was super close to challenging a gentleman, who was strolling along with his umbrella, twirling it like a baton, to a duel, but I chickened out.
The most delightful thing about my sleek umbrella is when you’re getting poured on, you look up and there is a bright, sunny sky with puffy clouds floating by. Indeed, it is like being within your own protective bubble. For the time I swam in the pedestrian sea today, sometimes with the tide and sometimes against it, I was under happy skies, and for that, I’m delighted.
Speaking of delighted, I’ve gotten a few days in a row with my precious grandson. His other grandma is out of the country, and I’m delighted to be filling in. In one little week, the synapses in his brain have formed such that he’s grouping toys together now – like with like. He’s understanding relationships outside of his own brain, and as he is now walking whilst holding on to things, he’s finding more and more to explore.
He’s so fascinating to watch and to play with. We played with blocks, with cars, and stuffed animals. We made up songs and rode his little elephant, while playing with his aunty-made crocheted elephant. We laughed and played patty-cake and peek-a-boo, and practiced Twinkle Twinkle on his xylophone.
Every day is a gift, and I love being here, with my sunshiny day, black bumbershoot.
