Walking Home in the Rain
How often do you actually walk in the rain?
You might rush through a downpour because you got stuck in it. Maybe it just started and you weren’t expecting it and you just keep going–maybe you have no choice. But when is the last time you chose to walk in it?
My son wasn’t thrilled (and told me so), but it was raining when I left to pick him up from school and it was raining quite a bit harder when I finally got him. He was surprised that I didn’t have the car, but I rarely have the car at all lately. He “took it like a man” (as he likes to say) and started walking.
We had an umbrella, what’s the worse that could happen? You get wet.
I told him about how when I was his age (he loves talking about when I was his age, so it’s a good ice breaker topic) I would put little homemade boats into the gutter at a friend’s street who lived on a hill. If you got a good enough storm, you could go for several blocks if they didn’t go down the drainpipe on a corner. I try not to lay on too thick with the “When I was young … ” stories, but sprinkling them throughout our boys’ childhood is something you just must do as a parent. I think it’s a law.
We got wet, it rained harder and harder, but then we found one of those packaging peanuts and it was so light that it turned out to be an excellent boat. It went around car tires, through dams of leaves, and all the way to the end of the line at the grate down into the sewer. We looked down together to say fare-thee-well and saw that it wasn’t alone, it wasn’t the only packaging peanut to meet its fate today in the gutter. There were at least 30 more peanuts down there. Good that Mr. Peanut found some solace in his watery grave, less good for our street where apparently someone is spilling packing peanuts in the street.
The dog was pretty soaked, our peanut met its fate, and we made it home. It’s just a Wednesday afternoon, nothing particularly spectacular about it, but maybe it will build character. For someone anyway: me, my son, or my dog. Maybe a little for all of us. Or maybe not. It doesn’t matter, it was a nice walk home in the rain that I won’t forget anytime soon. Especially now that I wrote it down.
When is the last time you intentionally walked in the rain?
Hi B. I only know one story from my fathers childhood, more should be law. This post is perfect timing for me, I went to bed and decided I would finally go for a walk today… woke up and it’s raining – lucky I have a waterproof coat 🙂
Thanks for the note, Ida. I’d really like to (just like this example) make more of these tidbits available for my kids when they’re older. Who knows what form this will take when they’re older, but at least I’m getting some of it down now, even just the simple, little stuff. But in fact, it’s often the “simple, little” stuff that’s the good stuff.