Tale of 3 Umbrellas

Once there were three umbrella brothers, all young, going out into the world to seek their fortune. But what did life mean for an umbrella? The very name itself was funny. Sounded tentative, um, um, umbra meant shadow or darkness. Not very promising for a young umbrella. In French the word umbrella meant small, small shadow was the meaning of umbrella. And the brothers weren't sure they liked it. But the smallest of the three decided that's what an umbrella was for, to be a small shadow. And he said, I'll spend my life sheltering folks from the rain. Surely that's what an umbrella is. Destiny must be. Nobody could disagree. Most umbrellas only came out on rainy days after all, but the next biggest brother wasn't so sure. Being somewhat of a linguist, umbrellas did go to school you know, he knew that another name for Umbrella was parasol. That's what I'll do in my life. He boasted no rain for me. Para means shielding against. And Sol obviously means sun. I will only come out on sunny days and keep folks cool in hot weather. And everyone thought that was a worthy goal. The only thing better than coming out on rainy days was to be useful on sunny ones. But then the two brothers looked up at the biggest and asked him well, what about you? The biggest brother patted his two smaller siblings on the back. And brothers do have backs you know, and he encouraged them that they were worthy of these traditional umbrella pursuits. But I think I'll do something a little different, he said thoughtfully. I want to be something more than a small shadow in my life. I want to hold up something for others to see, something for others to share and gaze in wonder at. I want to hold up the stars! Hearing this, his two smaller companions laughed at first, but then gasped in wonder when he slowly and majestically spread his arms and rose into the sky. The sun went down and the rain stopped and slowly one by one, the stars came out and reflected their glory on his shining outspread white face. Like his brother's, the biggest umbrella had found his destiny. He would be a reflector of the glory and the wonder shining above in the stars. And so throughout their long and useful lives, the three umbrella brothers were happy in their callings. So may we all as well.