Our View: This just in: Spring is here
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Easter Sunday has arrived in what seems like a winter of national discontent. The economy has soured, there is continuing war abroad, and a lengthy presidential race has become a test of endurance not only for the candidates, but for the voters.
But let us briefly pause from these worries today to remember a small piece of news that got lost in the past week’s headlines of scandal, bloodshed and bantering politicians:
Winter itself is over.
Spring officially began Thursday without a flourish of trumpets, a breathless announcement on the cable news, or official comment from the White House or Congress.
Perhaps all of us still were too disoriented from the recent return to daylight-saving time to notice the seasonal change. We’ve awakened these cool March mornings with just a trace of jet lag, our minds still adjusting slightly to clocks fast-forwarded an hour into the future.
But like travelers hopping time zones in the quest for some thrilling destination, we’ve rolled out of bed this Easter morning, perhaps still touched by time lag, to find that we’ve arrived in a new place called spring.
As with all arrivals in new places, there is much to see and do. The botanical pageant of budding flowers and greening trees is a pastime in itself, and the season’s birds and squirrels provide their own form of theater.
We also see the garden needs weeding, the patio needs cleaning and the mower must rumble out of its winter hibernation for another season of grazing the lawn.
But these are pleasant distractions from the stock market, the campaign trail and global warming.
Easter celebrates a possibility of renewal that resonates among people of all faiths and in the secular culture, too. It brings the message that beyond every winter of discontent lies the healing warmth of spring.
But let us briefly pause from these worries today to remember a small piece of news that got lost in the past week’s headlines of scandal, bloodshed and bantering politicians:
Winter itself is over.
Spring officially began Thursday without a flourish of trumpets, a breathless announcement on the cable news, or official comment from the White House or Congress.
Perhaps all of us still were too disoriented from the recent return to daylight-saving time to notice the seasonal change. We’ve awakened these cool March mornings with just a trace of jet lag, our minds still adjusting slightly to clocks fast-forwarded an hour into the future.
But like travelers hopping time zones in the quest for some thrilling destination, we’ve rolled out of bed this Easter morning, perhaps still touched by time lag, to find that we’ve arrived in a new place called spring.
As with all arrivals in new places, there is much to see and do. The botanical pageant of budding flowers and greening trees is a pastime in itself, and the season’s birds and squirrels provide their own form of theater.
We also see the garden needs weeding, the patio needs cleaning and the mower must rumble out of its winter hibernation for another season of grazing the lawn.
But these are pleasant distractions from the stock market, the campaign trail and global warming.
Easter celebrates a possibility of renewal that resonates among people of all faiths and in the secular culture, too. It brings the message that beyond every winter of discontent lies the healing warmth of spring.
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