the nose

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This is a bit like telling a joke and forgetting the punch line because I can’t remember the details of the story I want to tell you, or exactly where I might have heard it. I’d love to say I made it up, but I doubt it. I know it wasn’t Gogol. Please don’t tell me it was Forrest Gump.

There was this famous photograph, maybe of Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt in Malta, or Nixon and Khrushchev in their kitchen debate. There was another man there, too, but the excitement of the moment and the inattention of the photographer combined to leave him out of the picture. All of him, that is, except for his nose, a proud beak to put Joe DiMaggio to shame, that poked in from one edge, stubbornly asserting his rightful place in history. That man had a change of circumstances, I can’t remember the details, but he carried that photograph with him everywhere, and showed it to everyone he met. He wanted them to see that once he was a great man who had rubbed shoulders with giants. The nose was clearly his, who could mistake it? It was proof that he had been there, standing just to one side, watching as the world changed before his eyes.

This photo reminds me of that one. The Hanover girls lacrosse team won the New Hampshire State Championships on Wednesday. The caption for this photo names three girls that were there, cheering as the game-winning goal was scored. But we know there was a fourth, just off to the left, jumping and screaming as loud as the rest. Though I can’t tell you her name, I’d bet one day her kids will recognize her.