Little Blue Umbrella

I can count on one hand the number of times my family went camping. We're beach people... Sleeping in a tent while bugs crawl into our ears doesn't appeal to all of us! It's the time that's currently being represented by my thumb that I happened to recall today. It was as I was walking in the pouring rain through the streets of Philadelphia, huddled under a mangled blue umbrella, that I remembered one of the first of the few memories I have of camping.

My brave parents were selfless enough to attempt camping with their five children (10 and under). I don't remember the to and from or even the where and when. I just remember the part where all seven of us were packed into the tent preparing to fall asleep. It was raining, both my parents were frazzled from their efforts at setting up camp while trying to rein in their five unruly children and quite ready to collapse. I can clearly remember my dad trying to explain to us why we couldn't touch the tent fabric while it was wet. “Guys, do not touch the tent fabric while it’s raining because it will allow the water to leak into the tent and WE WILL GET WET!”

Well I don’t need to explain how the letter of the law arouses sin… I was born into my rebellious ways and I had to touch the fabric and see what he was talking about! I wasn’t the only one… Soon they had at least four out of five of their children directly ignoring the warning that was given.  We proceeded to finger paint the thin ceiling of our small tent in a wildly inspired fashion. Or at least that’s how we saw things at the time. It didn’t take long before the rain made good on its promise to seep through the fingerprints of our curiosity and splash us with the consequences of our free will choices.

Needless to say, our camping trip came to an abrupt end and what had seemed to already be an eternally exhausting excursion for my parents became more like hell in the woods. My father’s poor head was already on its way to grey, and I’m quite positive that we helped it along on this memorable camping trip.

So here I am trying to stay somewhat dry on my journey to the subway station, and failing quite miserably, and I can’t help but contemplate how that childhood memory almost seems a shadow to the realities in my life now. I can’t help but picture the sky above me as the tent over my heart, my imagination conjuring up images of my now adult fingers tracing the fabric of my starry ceiling. I had never dreamt of the flood to which I was beckoning.

This time there was no fatherly warning about where I’d lay my fingers or what I’d reach for. This time it was just me and my desperate longing to explore and touch the outermost edge of my own comprehension. This time it’s just me clinging to a little blue umbrella, begging it to keep me from this rain that I cannot will away. I can’t help but feel for the umbrella, as it cannot bear the onslaught from the sky.  Even with all of its courage and heart, this little blue umbrella will not be able to keep me from this flood.  There’s just no staying dry this time.

I guess it’s time to learn to swim.