Tuesday, January 06, 2009

On Catching

I've caught footballs and disks; I've caught my finger in a door and up with my sister during a bike race; I've caught several species of conversations and fish. I've caught colds, fevers, and, on one occasion, a particularly nasty bit of stomach flu. I'm an unusually lucky person, so once I caught a straight on the river and split the pot on what would have otherwise been a devastating hand. I caught a girl, too - she was walking backwards (too close to the conductor's stand) and then suddenly she was falling backwards and then only a tiny bit after that she was hanging on to my arms, apologizing like a crazy person and looking a little shaken up.

I've caught wind of an evil scheme; I've caught eyes with a bright yellow shirt. I once tried to catch a bottle of honey mustard that was falling out of a refrigerator but instead I ended up catching an uncomfortable handful of someone else's flesh.

I've caught moments on a camera - smiles and frowns, celebrations and failures - and I've caught my dog in the act of stealing brie off the kitchen table and my sleeve on a nail and my breath after a ragged run in the rain. I have never caught fire - for that much I'm grateful - but I have caught a paintball to the shoulder (it stung). Once during a little league game the batter hit a neat little foul in the cage and I dived, my glove stretched out, resting on the dirt, and I caught the ball, sealing the inning up. I've caught the Eagles game on an early Sunday evening; I've caught snowflakes on my tongue.

I have caught a million different things in my life, and I will catch a million more - for better or worse, that is the kind of person I am. I catch things.

6 comments:

Carissa said...

=]

Anonymous said...

on a scale of 1 to 10, i give this an unqualified 10.

Anonymous said...

This is a happy story. Very clever, i really liked this one.


strodes

Anonymous said...

I miss a lot.

Like, what was the story even about...?

Very nice!

Anonymous said...

"On Extreme Ironing"

Ello Shertzer said...

Intense lightbulb!

I agree with Jeff, this is very clever. Taking a word or an action which has many meanings, and putting them together, is a very neat idea.