BASEBALL HATS

 A Letter to Whomever Has Once Loved a Baseball Hat:

            I never was the baseball wearing hat kind of girl; when I go on runs, I will sometimes throw on a college cap or represent my local Padres. However, the excitement over a new hat with fresh stickers and a stiff brim was always obvious during December when friends would start sporting the bright new colors of their lightly worn baseball hats or during the beginning of a baseball season when my cousins would get all their new gear.

            This summer, I had the chance to volunteer in Costa Rica for a month. I taught children basic English, we drew pictures, made play dough, and read Bible stories. Mostly, I showed the children, sometimes for the first time, that someone loved them; they needed to know they were valued.

            In the community in Costa Rica where I taught, there were about thirty boys, and there were two hats that were more coveted than any hats I have seen in the States. There was a schedule that rotated through the boys for the most special hat of all: a Green Bay Packers hat with a hole about the size of a golf ball on the top of their head. The boys would pull all their hair through the hole and said that it made the breeze come in easier. They were so proud of their hat and they were proud on the day that they got to wear it.

            I am planning my trip to revisit the extended family I have created in Costa Rica for next year, and in the mean time sending packages to share my love from a plane ride away. This letter is an invitation for you to share in the gift of compassion with me for children that need the love of strangers. After talking to two of my younger cousins, I learned that there are a lot of kids here in the States that have baseball hats that they will never wear again either because they outgrew them or they have a new favorite. We have therefore started a collection of baseball hats in honor of a shared love for the excitement they bring globally and the curious power of a baseball hat to make a child smile no matter where they live.

            Please clear out your closets and open your hearts with the generous gift of your extra baseball hats. For San Dieagans that need more information on where to drop off baseball hats feel free to contact me at 619/857/9910 or give your donations to the Meyer family. The baseball hat package will be sent on August 1—please gather all donations prior to then. For anyone that lives in Portland and goes to UP, I will be doing a second hat drive that will ship out from school at the end of September. SO, pack your school bags with a few hats and let them make their way to Fields!



With a heart filled with gratefulness for your loving support,



            Brett Ashley Boeh

PERSPECTIVE SHIFT

            Yesterday, I sat in the bleachers of my cousin’s baseball game next to my Leanie, Aunt Kim, and Uncle Chris. After the game, we headed to church, dinner, and up Cowls Mountain for a night hike with flashlights. Despite the fear of nighttime creepy crawlies we were excited to make it to the top and see the 360° view of the city.

            It isn’t often that anything can be seen with such perspective. It reminded me of flying away from the ground on a plane and watching the people get smaller, and the world shrink. With the change in perspective, you remember that the world isn’t as big as it seems when you are wrapped up in it. Lately, I’ve been wrapped up in myself. It has been hard coming home after seeing something so new—eye opening. I miss the kids and I think of coloring or sitting on the beach with them all with an envy that takes over the fun I could have with my family and friends here at home.

            There was a Greenbay Packers hat that the boys would share down on the river. It had a big hole in one side of it and their hair would stick out. But, they were proud of their hat and on the day that it was their turn, they coveted it.  When I think of the things that I have, I would like to say that I covet the things that are important and refuse the materialism of the society in the moments that it counts. The truth of the matter is, I find myself with more want than I ought to, and less gratefulness as well.

            I am working with my cousins to organize a baseball hat drive with their baseball teams so that we can send baseball hats down to the River and maybe they can be proud of more than one hat that they all share.  I get to skype the boys weekly and it is refreshing to see that our enthusiasm for each others company hasn’t faded.

            After being gone for a year at school, and coming home it is shocking to see what an effect time and distance paired together have on relationships. In some areas of my life it has been a beautiful thing. In others, there is a void where there never was and loneliness is accompaniment. Like the peak of the mountain and seeing the whole city decorated with lights, so is the perspective change from Jaco to San Diego. I would like to make it easy, to say that everything is the same, to go back to the way things were, and rest happily in the comforts of the usual, the mundane. I would like to say the world has changed and my uncomfortable feeling is just a result of the change. However, I know the truth of the matter is that I am the one that is different. The difference I have found in myself is solely a measure of growth and the 360° perspective being a change that will luckily be difficult to escape.