{"id":301,"date":"2011-02-14T19:09:06","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T00:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/?p=301"},"modified":"2013-04-01T18:37:43","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T22:37:43","slug":"pitchers-and-catchers-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/?p=301","title":{"rendered":"Pitchers and Catchers Report…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>For almost twenty years in early February, an email with the heading \u201cPitchers and Catchers report\u2026\u201d either appears in my Inbox or is sent from mine to a very close friend who lives far away.\u00a0 I think he started it.\u00a0 I\u2019m so glad he did.<\/p>\n

There are years I remember to send it first.\u00a0 I spontaneously smile as I hit the send button.\u00a0 I feel a sense of contentment. \u00a0I am reminded of the days that I played, the coming of spring, the possibilities of new beginnings. \u00a0And I know that the reaction will be the same on the other end.\u00a0 In those years that he is ahead of me and sends the message first, I enjoy all the same feelings.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a short reminder:<\/p>\n

\u201cPitchers and catchers report next week.\u00a0 I hope you are well<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s usually it, but it speaks volumes.<\/p>\n

I wish I could bottle the feeling.\u00a0 It is a guaranteed smile when it appears in my mail or I send it to him.\u00a0 Neither of us thinks about it much throughout the year.\u00a0 Something occurs to one of us in early February \u2013 an awareness \u2013 a sense not to forget something, and off the message goes.\u00a0 It is something that is done as it occurs to us \u2013 not put off or relegated to later.<\/p>\n

It is small moments such as these, with my immediate, positive reaction, that remind me of how much is going on in our brain just below the surface, waiting to be expressed, waiting for Spring\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For almost twenty years in early February, an email with the heading \u201cPitchers and Catchers report\u2026\u201d either appears in my Inbox or is sent from mine to a very close friend who lives far away.\u00a0 I think he started it.\u00a0 I\u2019m so glad he did. There are years I remember to send it first.\u00a0 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-plain-fun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":684,"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions\/684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.steeringtheelephant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}