This Charming American

[danieldwilliam]

On my way to work I encountered one of the most charming men I’ve ever encountered.

 

Two men, one our American hero and one a native to this city were walking their daughters to school across the Meadows. The threatening rain arrived and the American opened his umbrella and gathered the three children, his daughter and the two belonging to the other man beneath it. Two of the children had put themselves under the umbrella and he gathered the third one in and made sure all of them were in the dry.

 

The three children were very impressed that he had such a useful thing as an umbrella and told him so and then turned on the unfortunate, damp and lonely citizen of Edinburgh castigating him for his lack of foresight, care and umbrella. The American then started explain how many times he, himself, had lost his umbrella, how he often found them a hinderance and a liabilty and how often stong Edinburgh winds destroyed them. By the end of his explaination of his own troubles with umbrellas the children were convinced that the native was not so feckless after all but perhaps had hidden and secret wisdom in the ways of umbrellas.

 

It was one of the most carefully done and charming turning away of the wrath of children I have ever seen.

Comments

[andrewducker]

That really is very good. I must remember this for the future.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

What was really charming about it was how generously the American chap dealt with the situation and how everyone ended up thinking good things about everyone else.