Sign of the Times

Rebecca read the headlines from the front page of the newspaper to me last night. There was something about the killings at Fort Hood. A mass murderer was executed in Virginia. The chief of police got pulled over on a DUI. Public transportation ran behind schedule. Congress fought. Nothing really uplifting was going on. And today it rained all day and I realized that this country really is going to hell in a wicker hand basket that was woven in China. Think about it. We've been the omnipotent presence in the world for generations and we still have to walk around in the rain with an umbrella that might break any moment the wind blows the wrong way.

I remember my picture bible had a shot of Jesus in Nazareth carrying a Totes model that they still make with the same cheap plastic arms it had in B.C. The Georgetown Yacht Club advertises that it's Cinzano umbrellas were purchased from a cafe in Yalta where FDR, Stalin and Churchill had absinthe before holding the conference that launched the cold war. What kind of world do we live in? In all this time someone hasn't been able to improve the umbrella design so that a gust of wind doesn't turn it inside out?

I've probably gone through more umbrellas in my lifetime than I have pairs of socks (Rebecca can attest to that). Granted, I've seen some folks walking around with those vented umbrellas that look like one smaller umbrella placed on top of a larger umbrella, presumably to give a gust of wind a realease. Is that it? That's the improvement the world is waiting for? It's so ugly. But do they work? I can overlook ugly if it works. I don't know anyone who has one. What do those things cost? Who can afford one? Anyone? Please, restore my faith in the world.