Today I Gave Away An Umbrella

01/30/15

As I walked to the bus stop today, after work, a man stopped me and asked for directions to the nearest Walmart. It looked as though he planned to walk, and he already looked soaked in inadequate clothing for the then-pouring rain.

He was much farther from Walmart than he thought he was. He probably thought he was about half a mile away. He was, in fact, two miles away. I explained he needed to walk two lights in one direction, and two lights in another. He thanked me for the information and started again on his path.

"Hey," I said, holding my umbrella out to him, letting the rain fall on my waterproof jacket and sweatpants.

He took a moment to process what I was doing. "Thank you." He took the umbrella and started walking in the opposite direction.

It's a strange series of events in my mind, this story. I don't mind getting wet. I often contain various items that very much mind getting wet, but me myself quite like the rain falling on me. This perspective is one of the first things I learned not to project onto other people.

And so, I give away umbrellas. This isn't the first time I've done so. I mean, I don't find myself in rain very often, and I don't find others in need of an umbrella every time I do, but I think when the rare circumstance happens that I have an umbrella that someone else may need, I give that someone else my umbrella.

And unlike many other debatably-related things, it's not even something I think too deeply about.

But anyways, long story short, I need a new umbrella.