Gotcha - Joan

 I admit it. I love summer. I love the warm sand between my toes,  the rough and tumble waves of the ever-changing ocean and the fact that at this time of year no one questions my year round propensity to live in flip flops. I actually have a lot vested in my footwear of choice, so recently when my favorite beat up Reefs were missing from the beach entrance, instead of just walking away, I mounted a full scale search and rescue mission.

After too much time looking, there under a pristine white surfboard that had been carelessly plopped in the sand, were my precious sandals. As I reached down to get them still balancing my beach towel, chair, book and now the overturned surfboard, I heard a voice, "I got you." Looking up, I saw a young boy who casually bent down and easily recovered my shoes. At my thank you, he shrugged his shoulders with a casual "No worries," his impish grin lingering as he ran off to his waiting car. 

          It made me think, how many times have I heard my own son say those words. I got you? Initially, it sounded like slang to me. I wondered whether the appropriate motherly response was to say, "You need to say, 'I'll  do that...for you,' or 'I've got your back.' Speak in full sentences or not at all." But then I realized, "I got you" has gone from the first words in the title of one of my favorite Sonny and Cher songs to being a "thing."

          If I wondered about this at all, I only had to watch the Women's 5000 Meter race in the recent Rio Olympics. As the catastrophic collision between runners Abbey D'Agostino and Nikki Hamblin aired worldwide, we saw an I Got You moment in real time. Touched by Abbey's encouragement to get up and finish the race, Nikki recognized, "Regardless of the race and result on the board, that's a moment that you're never, ever going to forget for the rest of your life, that girl shaking my shoulder like, 'Come on, get up.'"

          It was the epitome of one of Katie's favorite quotes by CK Chesterton, "We men and women are all in the same boat, upon a stormy sea. We owe to each other a terrible and tragic loyalty." In today's vernacular: we can do this...I Got You.

          At a recent lecture I attended on Jewish-Catholic relationships and the importance of faith, I recognized that for me, faith is the ultimate I Got You. And whether it's grammatically correct or not, Thank You God, because it's a good feeling. (Joan)