The Yellow Umbrella

Salesians of Don Bosco's Rector Major Father Pascual Chávez Villanueva's 2007 Strenna:

Be Guided by G-d's Love for Life

• I offer you a fable that shows the importance of a positive attitude to life. Visiting Belarus, I was very pleasantly impressed by a group of young people I met in Minsk and by the performance they gave of a story. I liked it very much and it seemed to me so enlightening that I said to myself: this is what I want to share with the whole Salesian Family, this is what I would like to do wwith each one of its members: give them my yellow umbrella, the one I received from Dom Bosco.
• A young girl named Natasha lived in a country where all umbrellas were black. Everyone seemed so sad under their black umbrellas. One day when it was raining more heavily than usual, a rather strange lady suddenly appeared, braving the storm, with a yellow umbrella, and, stranger still, she was smiling. Smiling at everyone! Some of the passers-by were shocked and scowled at her, from under their black umbrellas. They muttered:
• Look at that woman, disgraceful! Doesn't she look ridiculous under her yellow umbrella?
• Rain is a serious business and an umbrella can only be black!
• Others were furious and said to one another:
• What on earth has come over her, going out in the rain with a yellow umbrella? What a show off!
• She's so full of herself, trying to get noticed! Perhaps she thinks it's funny.
• In fact there was nothing funny in that country, where it always rained and all umbrellas were black. Natasha couldn't reallly understand their criticisms. A thought kept going round in her head:
• When it is raining, an umbrella is an umbrella. Yellow or black, what does it matter if it keeps off the rain?
• What's more, she noticed that the lady seemed to be perfecly at ease, quietly content under her yelloow umbrella.
• Natasha wanted to know more..
• One day coming out of school, Natasha realised that she had left her own black umbrella at home., She shrugged and began walking, getting very wet.
• Just then the lady, with her yellow umbrella, passed by.
• Come under my umbrella, you're getting very wet.
• Natasha hesitated. If she accepted, her friends would make fun of her. Then she had another thought:
• When it's raining an umbrella is an umbrella. Whether it's yellow or black what does it matter?
• It's always better to have an umbrella than to get soaking wet in the rain!
• She accepted and nervously walked under the yellow umbrella, beside the kind lady. She then understood why the lady was so happy: under her yellow umbrella there was no bad weather! There was a big warm sun and a blue sky. The birds were singing.
• Natasha was astonished, and the lady burst out laughing:
• You're surprised? Just listen to me and I'll explain everything.
• Once upon a time, I too was sad in this country where it is always raining.
• I too had a black umbrella. One day, coming out of my office, I forgot it. I didn't go back to get it, I started walking home. As I went along, I met a lady who offered to shelter me under her yellow umbrella. I hesitated. I was afraid to be different, to make myself look ridiculous. But then I accepted because I was even more afraid of catching a cold.
• And I noticed, like you, that under the yellow umbrella the bad weather has disappeared. That lady taught me that the people under a black umbrella were sad and didn't want to talk. The patter of the rain and the blackness of the umbrella made them sad.
• Suddenly, I no longer saw her. I was on my own holding her yellow umbrella. Had she forgotten it? I looked around but I couldn't find her.
• So I've kept it and the good weather has never left me.
• Natasha exclaimed:
• What a story! Don't you feel embarrassed, keeping someone else's umbrella?
• No, because I know very well that this umbrella belongs to everyone. There's no doubt that lady had received it from someone else.
• Arriving outside Natasha's house they said goodbye.
• No sooner had the lady disappeared than the girl realised that she was left holding the yellow umbrella. She had no idea where the lady had gone.
• So Natasha kept the yellow umbrella, but she knew that, sooner or later, it would have another owner. It would havve passed into other hands. It would bring happiness to other people.
   

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Updated 14:14 7 March 2007