Alyssum -- and a Children's Story -- The Bad Loser

Hello Friends,

I found these on a short loop trail in Morro Bay adjacent to the Bayshore Cafe, and looked them up with Google Lens. Turns out they're Alyssum. Per Wikipedia:"

"Alyssum is a genus of over a hundred species of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae, native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, with the highest species diversity in the Mediterranean region."

They're quite small. The width of this image is approximately 1-1/2 inches (3.8 cm). I shot this with a Panasonic Lumix GX7 with 3D lens, using frame sides for phantogram processing.

For some time now I've been playing around with a children's parable specific to our moment in time. I present to you "The Bad Loser."

Disclaimer: Some of the persons portrayed in it may be based on real people. You may also load a PDF of the story at http://3ddigitalphoto.com/the%20bad%20loser.pdf

You are welcome to share this story to others as you wish.

Best regards,

Barry Rothstein

The Bad Loser

This was the kind of moment Donny lived for.

"Just a hit. All I need is a hit," he thought. "Bases loaded. A hit and I win the game."

Donny played mostly second base on the Vultures, sometimes outfield. He knew he was a pretty good baseball player, maybe not a great or gifted one. But here was his moment of glory to be.

In came the pitch, way outside, an enormous swing, ... and a miss. Strike one.

"Oh, so he's not going to throw me a good pitch," Donny thought. "OK, I can wait." But the next pitch is a strike. No swing. Strike two.

"OK, this is the one, here it comes." Big swing, tips it, ... into the catcher's glove. Strike three. He's out. Game over.

A brief moment of disappointed looks come from his teammates, but so what, it's just a game. They've all struck out before.

Donny stands at home plate in disbelief. "I got a piece of it, I fouled it off," he says to no one but himself. He still stands at home plate, waiting for another pitch, but everyone else is just walking away toward the dugouts, talking, chattering, like nothing's happened.

But Donny can't move. He continues to stand there, feeling cheated. His coach smiles and waves at him to join his teammates at their dugout. Georgie walks over to Donny, pats him on the shoulder, says "Good try!" and walks to the dugout.

"Good try? Good try? Good try??? Not good enough!!!" rattles through his brain. He's steaming, angry, hurting, and where Georgie touched his shoulder it actually burns.

"We could have won that game." His brow deepens ... "We should have that game." His brow deepens more.

His face is becomes strangely distorted. A crooked smile creeps over Donny's face. "We won the game. We won by a lot." His smile gets broader.

As he walks to the dugout he wants it to be true so much, that he believes it.

"Hey, great game!" Donny is all smiles, patting backs. "What a game!"

Leroy smiles back but wrinkles his nose. "Sure, great game Donny." But Leroy thinks it's kind of weird that Donny's so happy after he struck out.

Paulie looks sideways at Donny. "Huh? Yeah, good game but we lost."

"No we didn't lose," says Donny. "We won. We won big!"

Now more of the guys are looking at Donny wondering what's going on.

Andy is always a jokester. He thinks this is funny. "Yeah, we won," he says.

Sammy slaps at his own head in disbelief. "Duh! No, we lost."

Georgie steps straight at Donny, stands face to face. "No we lost Donny. It's OK."

"We won!" Donny screams, followed by a chorus of "No" or "Oh Yeah, sure!" or "We lost" from most of the team.

Donny looks at the girls, Becky, Pearl and Aisha, standing together in one spot next to the dugout. "Hey we won, right?" Donny calls to them hopefully. The girls stare back at Donny has a clear unspoken message. It says, "You're an idiot, shut up, don't bother us, go away!"

Donny stares back at Georgie. "No we won! We won by a lot," and shoves Georgie.

Georgie pushes back. "Donny, we lost." Georgie usually likes Donny, but this is really weird.

Donny says "No," and pushes Georgie back so hard he falls and hits his head on the ground. What rises from Georgie is a scream so loud it's like the siren from a fire truck.

The sound sets off the Mom-Alarm. One mother peeks out of a doorway, then another. A flurry of moms appear out of several houses to the wailing of Georgie.

Among the boys, there is shouting and pushing chaos. The girts just walk away, as the moms descend upon the boys.

Expert herders, each mom points straight at a boy or two, and their gazes tell them to stop and sit down quietly. All but Donny obey.

Donny keeps trying to explain, "I won the game," while others shout back "No, we lost."

The moms in unison raise both their hands high and shout "Enough! It doesn't matter!"

Georgie's mom is Tracy. "Georgie, whatever you did to Donny, say you're sorry."

"OK, sorry Donny," but he's not sure what to be sorry for.

Donny's mom is Evelyn. "Donny. You apologize to Georgie right now!"

But Donny is quietly fuming, totally enraged. "I won the game! They're cheating me. Apologize? Why?"

The look on Donny's mom's face leaves no room for doubt. "Apologize right now!"

To Donny this is way beyond unfair, impossible. His whole body actually shakes. Tears come down his face, and worse yet, a stream of pee darkens his baseball pants for everyone to see.

Evelyn and Tracy face off. A look of sad amusement creeps onto their faces. They smile at each other, shake their heads, shrug their shoulders, and walk their boys home.

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