Deeply Cosmic Basketball

Young'un and I had a great day yesterday. We were on our own, because Husband and Mother-in-law were on a road trip, so our day had a different structure than usual Saturdays. Young'un had baseball practice from 11:30 to 1:00, and we stopped at MIL's house on the way, to give her Chloe pug some food and a little outing. Chloe really tears into her food! She fills her entire mouth with it, then chews and chews and chews until she's got it all down.

In the afternoon Young'un took the basketball outside, to shoot some hoops in the great weather. He asked me if I'd come out and play too, and to his surprise I said yes! And out I went. Now I used to be pretty good at the whole driveway-basketball business, and (like riding a bicycle) it all came back to me. First I startled my son with my ability to sink free-throw after free-throw, shooting with one hand on either side of the ball in the old-fashioned way I learned from my dad. Then we shot from various angles, and I recalled how I'd always enjoyed the geometry of bank shots: where on the backboard the ball must hit in order for the bounce to send it through the rim. Happily I ran for loose balls, slung passes, and leaped for rebounds.

My boy expressed surprise at all this technique from Mama, and I said to him, "But don't you know? This is how I met your father, 40(!) years ago this very month. You're here because I can do this!" That really gave him something to think about. He knew the story of our living across the alley from each other, had even stood on the historic spot where we first met, but hadn't thought through the actual basketball part. As for me, I just soaked up the cosmicness of once again being outdoors in the fragrant warmth of a mid-March afternoon playing basketball with a 6'4" 15-year-old guy -- but this one is the son of me and the first one.