Lost: Baseball glove, perfectly oiled and broken in, Rawlings, tan leather, perfect pocket. Belongs to 12-year-old boy, who is distraught at the theft. Whoever took it, you better watch out for the boy’s big brother, who has promised to pound you into the pavement.
Found: Baseball glove, name, address and phone number written in ink on leather, smeared by thief who found he couldn’t rid glove of previous owner‘s name. Tossed into gutter of neighborhood street. Phone call from good citizen returns glove to previously distraught 12-year-old boy.
Lost: Devotion to baseball by boy who adds to his years and begins to think of other things. Devotion is directed more toward young women, who require concentration and dedication surpassing that demanded by baseball. Statistically not as complex. Physically and emotionally more consuming by far.
Found: Fascination in adult years with tragic history of Boston Red Sox whose historic failure in ’86 is observed with 10-year-old son looking on, face writ with devastating loss of innocence, a failure redressed 18 years later looking on with 28-year-old son who weeps at the culmination.
Lost: Older brother who was ready to exact punishment of glove thief 52 years before, as a result of mysterious blood ailment. Sudden absence means no one else in family remembers the Los Angeles years. Shared love of Brubeck, Coltrane. Trip to British Columbia.
Found: Presence in absence. Large imprint of missing person a reminder of the essential connection.
Lost: Simplicity of notion that lovely young women hold key to secret chamber of bliss and understanding.
Found: Bliss and understanding upon learning I hold the key, as do others, and that the secret chamber can be explored together by people with open hearts and open eyes.
Lost: Particular memories of unique moments each day of miraculous young lives of children growing up.
Found: Glowing appreciation of children, now grown up, encountering the unique moments each day of the miraculous lives of five children who are my granddaughters.
Lost: All that time.
Found: All that time.
