"What If We Give It Away?" - REM, 1986

For the past two mornings, I've seen the same old man on St Aldates, as I've walked from the bus stop down to the office. He looks, as my father would have said, "down on his luck". Sadly, he's only one of many such people you can see on the streets of Oxford. They are more visible early in the morning, when there aren't so many people crowding the narrow sidewalks.

What has made this man stand out for me is the cap he's wearing. Of all things, it's a St Louis Cardinals baseball cap. The cap is 'way past its prime -- really well worn. I didn't think much about it at first. After all, I grew up watching Cardinals baseball. But then I realized just where I am. I'm not in the US. I'm in Britain. I'm in Oxford!

That started me thinking. I wonder where he got that cap? Who owned that cap originally? How did it get to Britain? How old is it? How many lives has it passed through during its own lifetime?

And then that train of thought made me think of my father. He's been gone a long time now -- he died in 1987. But I'm afraid that a lot of what made him quirky is stuck inside me, too!

What eventually happens to all those "things" we give away?

Daddy and I once had a discussion about that, centering around a windbreaker I had once given him. It was a promotional giveaway from a small oil trading company I worked for back in the early '80's. It was navy blue, with the company's name written on the front in white letters, where a breast pocket would be. Somewhere along the way, my father gave it away. And we once laughed to think that someday we'd be driving around in the bowels of downtown Houston and see some drunk, homeless man wearing that jacket which advertised "M***A ENERGY" so proudly on the front! (I won't embarrass the owner of the now-defunct company by writing out the entire name. But my friends who read this will know exactly what I'm talking about here!)

Of course, I've never actually seen one of those navy blue windbreakers again. Perhaps someday I will. And I have to wonder where I'll be when it happens!

Janet

STILL Listening To: "The Outsider" - Rodney Crowell