Snug

Entry 10

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash

Snug

“You’re a ball cap”, my human said with a shrug. 

“A BA-ll c-AP”, I said, a disorderly pronunciation no doubt.

“Yeah, you know, we wear them during our baseball games. They look slick, right? Plus, they protect our eyes from the sun.”

“What is BAse-BAll?”, another poor attempt at articulation. My human was annoyed. 

“You don’t have to say it like that… It's a game. I suppose in some ways it’s more than a game.”

“In what ways?”

“Well, I’m not sure if you understand or experience time the same way humans do. Our days are ruled by time, it is the constant measure residing underneath every action, it is the perpetual consequence underpinning all of our choices. We have a finite amount of it and that scarcity influences our decisions, whether we acknowledge it or not… Well, baseball is special, as far as I’m concerned. When I’m on the diamond I forget about time. I stop counting minutes, and count outs instead; such a beautiful thing the game ends, when it ends. Time…that control freak, can but shrug.”

“What’s an out?”

“Ugh, Snug…I’ll tell you what, we’ve got no games this weekend so I’ll bring you back to my place and we’ll have a baseball movie marathon. There are some great ones! After that you’ll be all caught up.”

The next morning my human friend took a seat on the couch, grabbed an arm full of snacks, placed me on my perch and taught me about this… baseball.