A Better Stick

Yesterday evening, walking home from a Parent Teacher meeting, I was carrying an umbrella that had become useless since the rain clouds had moved on. After tiring of twirling the furled umbrella in different planes by its curved handle and balancing it by its tip on a finger, I started using it like a dandy’s walking stick or a war veteran’s cane.

This posed a problem since one could only support one leg at a time, by mimicking its movement with a cane. The solution for two weary legs was of course to employ the stick between them, with both hands and moving it twice as fast to ease the burden of each leg’s step.

Naturally, I found out, such a front and center cane should come with a double handle and be curved to avoid colliding with tummy or groin and to terminate at a point on the ground under one’s center of gravity. I would hope such a handsome, sensible cane would not draw the same stares as my double-paced, between-the-legs use of an umbrella.