March & The Shepherd

Uncle Cosimo used to tell me and my cousins Italian folk legends from the Gazebo in our backyard — their fiery stories would have me gripping the shaky stick walls, even though I never really understood any of it because Cosimo and my Popeye, John Antonelli, would recite it all in Italian. But I could get the gist and my favorite was the March and the Shepherd when the shepherd laughs at March because he was able to have a good crop and healthy flock without so much as a rain storm, only to lose it all because he mocked March who borrowed a storm from April to teach the brash shepherd a lesson. Cosimo would play the part of the storm wiping away the poor Shepherd’s flock, waving his dark, hairy arms and large hands like the wind, spilling his cup of vino, shouting “Il Temporale! Temporale"!” I didn’t learn the lesson until years later when I found the translation tucked at the bottom of an old chest we thought we had lost when my family migrated from the Napoli hills to the states. I think of this story when I hear about kids using social media to boast about what they did or who they are with, and mock someone for how they look … or when I’m 95% to the finish line, ahead of the pack on anything, and want to celebrate before I’m done …. or when my own kids excel at something on stage or in school and I try to remember what the other side feels like, the parents whose kids are doing their best but whose idea of success isn’t measured in sports championships or 4.0 G.P.A.s or leads in a play but in simpler milestones we take for granted, like getting dressed or writing a sentence or carrying on a conversation. I think of all this and I think about April.