Baseball & Shamrocks

Grounded, my bare feet rest on three-leaf clover that has taken over the grass. I’m sitting under a tree watching my youngest grandson play baseball on a Saturday morning. An American flag flutters slightly as teams shout out positions and potential plays. My daughter, a skilled photographer, aims her camera strategically. The aroma of grilling hotdogs wafts on the breeze along with joyous song notes of an Oak Titmouse mixed with the chatter and laughter of free ranging children. It’s small-town pleasures defying all-world tensions. Today I’m content to be enveloped in this evocation of communities at play rather than nations at war.

Life passes so quickly. It was only yesterday that this fast-growing boy was a small toddler released by his mama on my doorstep, fat little legs churning mid-air before wobblily making his way to a treasured toybox in my back bedroom/office. Now a junior high schooler, in the blink of an eye he will be a young man forging his own future somewhere –hopefully still close by enough for me to enjoy his irreplaceable presence in my everyday life.

All seven of my grandchildren will inherit this planet we currently responsible adults are fast ruining. Sometimes I wonder what might change if we consciously installed thoughtful pre-adults into the chambers of our nation’s lawmakers, giving them voice and votes as to how we proceed in the matter of preserving life and limb on this inimitable blue dot in our vast galaxy.

The three leaves of a clover, also known as a shamrock, are said to stand for faith, hope and love. As I look down at my feet resting on the tri-leaf greenness I am conscious of the quick-passing of community fun and of my own inescapable attenuation of physical activity. Simultaneously, I am filled with love, and hope, and a dogged faith in human resilience and innovation such as demonstrated by the irrepressible team spirit of the young players on the field before me.

Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai has wisely said,

Let us remember: one book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world.