Loss and Found

In a fleeting moment of lucidity, a revelation occurred to me:  The meaning of life is learning how to lose.  As children, we play games.  Sometimes we win, but more often we lose and have to do so without taking our ball home or crying.  We fall in love, and unlike the fairy tales read, often lose those loves to someone else. During our lives we lose money, jobs, friends, our health, sometimes our way, occasionally our minds.  We are born, live, and die, losing loved ones in the process.  So what life teaches us is how to lose (hopefully with dignity), overcome loss, and carry on.

However, sometimes we find.  Finding is usually a lot more fun, especially when it is a surprise.  A friend of ours keeps a running tally of how much money she finds.  My grandfather used to say that you can't find money looking in the air, so I have always walked with my eyes to the ground.  I have found an occasional coin (once I found $250), but they are getting fewer and further between as people use more credit/debit cards.  Today, Jokker was the big winner.  We took the dogs for a walk in Creve Coeur Park.  Because the trails were really muddy we walked the fields.  As we strolled the perimeter of the softball field I found a nice florescent softball.  Jokker love balls, so there was a long game of throw and fetch.  Figuring it was his lucky day, we circled the whole outfield.  We found 4 softballs in really great condition.  There is a tennis court adjacent to the ball field, so we walked it as well.  Here we found 8 tennis balls (Jokker's ball of choice).  As we headed back to the vehicle, Jokker pranced ahead of us with a new tennis ball in his mouth!  It was a dog day indeed.

Jokker and his stash!

 

 

So I figure the old adage is true, "You win some and you lose some".