Dear Little Boy Who Didn't Catch the Ball,
Well kid, I was sitting here drinking my java this morning and chain smoking ... (I don't recommend that by the way, you look like you have a very strong little set of lungs and you should keep them that way..)
Anywho, I caught the above frame out of the corner of my eye this morning and I feel so unbelievably sorry for you that I could cry as hard as you've been crying... Not because you didn't catch the ball... You didn't expect to catch it did you? Even if you had gotten your glove underneath it, it most likely would've been going fast enough it would have ripped your little arm right out of the socket...
Sugar, I'm sad for you because the headline says, "Adults keep ball with crying child nearby" and this screwed up society is about to make you think you're the most entitled little thing on the face of the earth for no reason whatsoever than society
I'm not exactly sure when it was that we "stopped keeping score at children's ballgames" and "giving every kid an award for just showing up", but I feel we have mortally wounded our future generations by doing it and I can't apologize enough... I didn't really have a horse in the race ... no kids, just an aquarium full of fishies and a cat named Shazbot ...
I mean I write about this stuff kid, you know... I'm in your corner, but parents are busy and they don't always have time to think all the way around the corner on how their actions .. although well-meant, might actually send you out into the world in no better condition than a wounded bird.
The truth about the ball is, the guy next to you and your folks caught it ... and now it's his. That's the way life works when you're out in it taking care of yourself... sometimes you get the ball and sometimes the cat next to you gets it. ((I don't mean the "literal cat" sweetie, "Cat" is slang from the 60's and I hope that by the time you're old enough to read this it'll back in full usage again))
It's like Steven Tyler said on American Idol the other night,
"You can't pick the cherries with your back to the tree..."
((You know Steven Tyler, you're probably watching him now as a sixth generation or so fan... he's a branding dynamo and one of my all times faves and he gave some very sage advice... ))
And Dale Wright ... Dale Wright used to say, "Weyell now y'all girls let's just stand out here with y'all's gloves downya sides and watch that thang role onyout thar to that fence!"
You probably don't know Dale Wright, kid ... he was one of my t-ball coaches on the Metropolis Drugs team in 1980 and that's 'Massac county union' dialect, so you may not be able to understand it, but basically he was telling us if we wanted to catch the ball we had to get in front of it and stop it... and he was right.
I wish you the best, kid ... I just saw you on the Today show... I have it on mute while I'm venting, but I'll bet they've given you an effing baseball team or something by now...
Having said all of that, if your parents are savvy .. and I hope they are ..
we haven't seen the last of your screaming little face*
Best Wishes Kid,
"Auntie Ocho"
Click Here For A Follow Up On This PostIf You Liked It ~ Share It!
Please and Thanks!
