Rain

It was an ugly umbrella. But it was given to me by someone who meant much. Someone had given it to him. A hand-me-down token of thoughtfulness...I don't know but I let the thing mean more to me than I ever should have. A few weeks ago the rain was coming down hard, a homeless fellow asked for change. Okay and would you like this umbrella, I asked. He was more than happy to take it off my hands and out of my life. I preferred the rain to that tacky awful umbrella. The thing really was ugly. I like umbrellas, I do but who in their right mind would have picked that pattern and color. No accounting for taste, really.

I've always allowed things that were given to me by people I love to mean more than they should. Sometimes an ugly umbrella is just an ugly hand-me-down umbrella that should continue to be passed on.