1 out of 3 Umbrellas

An Owl, a Raccoon, and a Rabbit were sitting together on a bench during a big rainstorm. The rain was coming down and coming down and coming down some more.

Luckily, all three of the animals had brought their umbrellas today. What are the odds? Seems like on the day of a rainstorm at least 1 in 3 folks would forget their umbrella at home. Not today. These three were on top of their game. If the name of the game was staying dry these three were nailing it.

However, this minor miracle / statistical anomaly posed a problem for the three strangers that has never happened to either of them ever before. There was not enough room above them to accommodate three umbrellas on one bench.

The lack of room leads to lots of jostling and jockeying for umbrella positioning. Not soon after one made an adjustment did another start feeling some drips and therefore made their own adjustment causing another to make their own adjustment and so on and so on.

The Owl, the Raccoon, and the Rabbit were each so proud of themselves for remembering their umbrella on a rainy day that they each insisted they wanted to use their own umbrella. The strangers didn’t have any interest in coordinating umbrella efforts by perhaps closing one and using the cover from two umbrellas to keep three people dry. Which, I assure you, could have been easily accomplished.

No, the three each decided that not using their umbrella on a rainy day would feel exactly like it feels to carry around an umbrella all day only for it to never rain. Truly, how silly does that feel when that happens? No one had the desire to feel silly today at all.

So the three kept adjusting and re-adjusting and re-re-adjusting, then re-re-re adjusting, and each time they re-adjusted each one got a little more wet and a little more wet and a little more wet till they were all just regular old soaked.

As the three strangers sat soaking and seething they realized an important lesson. The Umbrella has a theoretically irreproachable design; skinny at the bottom which is less important when it comes to staying dry, and wide at the top which is the most important to staying dry. But, the design only works if 1 out of every 3 remember to forget their umbrella on the day that it rains.

So next time you forget your umbrella on a day it rains remember to thank yourself for your service.