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Reflections April 2013

Life Is for Living

I Am an Umbrella

By Neil Wyrick

You may consider the collapsible umbrella a fairly modern invention but records show them in China in 21 A.D. Indeed, we were used on four wheel carriages with bendable joints that allowed us to be extended or retracted.

I am an umbrella but I answer to many names: parasol, brolly, parapluie, rainshade, sunshade, gamp, bumbershoot, or umbrolly. I am identified often with the month of April and the state of Washington. And quite often I am what you have left in the car as you stand at the front of a store looking out at a torrential rain assaulting a parking lot.

I come in all kind of conditions from waterproofed to perpetually leaky; from small models you carry in your hand to larger models that spread over patio tables — until a wind comes along and topples both table and umbrella.

However, I do not just protect you from the gifts of the clouds, I am also your portable shield from the sun. In fact, my name comes from the Latin word “umbra” which translated means shade.

One old picture of an umbrella depicts a Middle Eastern king in the 12th century seated on a horse with an umbrella extended over his head by a nearby servant. There were protective coverings in ancient Egypt – a fan of palm leaves or colorful feathers attached to elongated handles. And not to be outdone in the history books, one has only to look back in time to find me as a parasol which no fashionable lady would be found without in 6th century Greece.

In long ago Rome their umbrellas were made of skin or leather and some had handles that slanted backwards.

You may consider the collapsible umbrella a fairly modern invention but records show them in China in 21 A.D. Indeed, we were used on four wheel carriages with bendable joints that allowed us to be extended or retracted.

Who invented the first umbrella is unknown. Probably someone sitting in the safety and comfort of a tent decided that what was needed was a smaller, more portable tent — thus all the variations. But there is an ancient legend that comes from the Indian subcontinent. It purports to explain how we came to be designed in so many shapes and sizes.

As the story goes, in a Sanskrit epic Mahabbarara, in about the 4th century, a skilled bow and arrow shooter named Jamadagni had a wife named Renuka who would recover his arrows. One day, however, it took her all day to recover them. Angry and impatient, he demanded to know why. When she told him it was because of the heat of the sun, Jamadagni began to shoot arrows at the sun. The sun soon began to beg for mercy and offered Renuka an umbrella in return for a reprieve from the arrows.

No matter my actual origin, my uses have expanded in all directions as you have considered my possibilities, from being used in some religious ceremonies to helping photographers by diffusing light. Indeed, we provide a thriving business for the world’s economy. In Shanghai, China, alone there are 1,000 factories that produce umbrellas. For all your modern technology and no matter what we are called, we are here to stay.

 

[To the many of you who look forward to Neil’s seasonally themed columns. Neil has just returned home from a month of recuperation from a stroke. Hopefully he will be able to resume writing at his regular pace in the near future.]

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