There sat the hat, dejected.
A cheap seven dollar Walmart hat.
Not unique,
not fine,
not particularly appealing.
Destined to be bought on sale by a Walmart shopper (not always the classiest crowd) and inevitably to be stepped on in the bottom of a closet,
forgotten,
until eventually the hat would be thrown away or given to DI where it would sit for years on a shelf and never be re-purchased.
But not this hat.
This hat was bought, not by an average shopper wanting a gardening hat, but bought last minuet (by someone who makes every hat look worthy of Audrey Hepburn) as a hat to keep the sun off on hikes in the great National park of Yellowstone.
That's right, I bought this hat especially for our trip.
I could sense right away that this hat in the middle of the stack (because it had never been tried on before) was a rather romantic hat,
and that totality a style I can handle.
The hat sat in a car for hours before it was worn outside, and then,
oh the beauty this hat saw.
For the first time the hat felt hope for a life that didn't end on the shelves of thrift stores or garbage cans.
The rather romantic hat felt a deep connection with the wild and rugged beauty of the National park,
No mere playground could compete.
The hat knew that for the rest of its hat life
it would wistfully look back on these days at the national park as defining and freeing.
Hat began to form a plan.
Hat sat gracefully on the head of it classy owner through many sights,
until at last at one fateful stop;
it happened.
The hats fake straw heart lept with joy
as in the windy rainy afternoon it overlooked the lower falls of Yellowstone canyon.
Beautiful.
Elegant.
Empowering.
With a graceful leap so quick it could not be stopped,
the hat lept into the wind and storm
and with wings of golden (fake) straw
flew over the cliff edge
tumbling poetically down to the frothy river below.
Hat rode down the river,
to lakes and valleys
of the beautiful and exciting
Yellowstone National Park.
I suppose it was the most romantic thing any hat could do.
As I said I could sense from the beginning that this was a rather romantic hat.
