In late January 2023, I spent two weeks in St. Petersburg, Florida, attending class with writer Ross Gay. I am a lucky dude. Ross, my fellow students, and I convened at Eckerd College, a small liberal arts school right on the Boca Ciega Bay. The campus includes a white-sand beach where the students can snorkel, play beach volleyball between classes, and even work on their homework with their toes in the surf.
Between my classes, I would wander to the baseball field where the Eckerd Tritons (a fitting nickname) were already in spring training. I played a little baseball in college, and I recognized the jocular camaraderie between the players as they stretched and played catch.
These memories have returned as Hurricane Milton bears down on that very same place. I hope all the students, faculty, and staff have evacuated. Who knows what the campus will be like upon their return? What will they find destroyed or washed away?
The skies are blue and sunny here, just like almost two years ago when those baseball players ran as carefree and unrestrained as the breeze, and their laughter a melody with the slap of baseballs into their gloves. Watching from the metal bleachers, I recalled the throwing partners that I’d had over the years, like Casey, my college roommate, and Stephen, my high school buddy, and before that, my dad and younger brother. Such memories, especially during times of uncertainty, are like a baseball thrown back and forth between the present and the past. Maybe memories are miracles, providing a beam of hope and even shelter in the midst of life’s storm.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of “Little Big Moments,” a collection of mini-essays about parenting, and “Tigers, Mice & Strawberries: Poems.” Both titles are available most anywhere books are sold online. Taylor-Troutman lives in Chapel Hill where he serves as pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church and occasionally stumbles upon the wondrous while in search of his next cup of coffee.
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