Influences

How does the nursery rhyme go?  Oh, right, little girls are sugar and spice and all things nice.  I wonder. 

Clare is a very good swimmer, enough so that she was asked to join a club long before she played softball.  If she had a role model, it was Amy Van Dyken.  My daughter liked that the Olympic swimmer spit water at opponents.  Clare was all of eight at the time of the Sydney Olympics.

I’m happy to report Clare never spit at another player, teammate or otherwise.  But plenty of infielders out there can attest to the gusto of a certain base runner who always slid hard into second base to break up double plays.  Cuts and bruises given bothered Clare no more than cuts and bruises received.

On Friday, Van Dyken severed her spine in an ATV accident.  The fire that burns does not go out when an athlete retires; it seeks release in all sorts of ways.  I pray for my daughter every night.