Careful when walking

Let this post serve as a warning to the wise or to the foolish who wish to become wise.

This afternoon I took a short walk to the local optometrist's office about five blocks from the parish. I donned my iPod (it's a great joy to listen to Bach's "Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor" while walking down the sidewalks) and - because it was raining) I picked up my red and white St. Anthony high school umbrella.

On the way back to the parish I noticed, several blocks ahead of me, a man crossing the street to the sidewalk on which I was walking with a large camera and I recognized him as the photographer from the local paper.

"Oh, no," I thought. I've never enjoyed having my picture taken and the possibility of it being in the paper makes the idea even less appealing. To make matters worse, whenever attention is drawn to me when I don't want it I always get this dorky grin. Try as I might I cannot make the grin go away. Not knowing what else to do I pulled my iPod out of my pocket to look like I was browsing through the songs as I walked along.

You never know when a simple walk will land you in the newspaper. It did, though, provide a nice conversation afterwards with the photographer. We see each other frequently at local basketball games and I talk with him at them. Last year he took a picture of me blessing pets on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi which apparently won an Illinois AP photo award (I should ask for a copy of the picture).

My advice: don't go for a walk in the rain with a red and white umbrella. If a picture does end up in the paper I'll try to link to it.