Message from Mendicant Mother Nature?
As I sat inside my home a few weeks ago, watching the blizzard that weathermen had initially predicted to be just "snow showers," my thoughts wandered to the events of the first weeks of 2010 and I quickly discerned a pattern - not much credibility. Yes, forecasting in the DC Metro area is tricky, and I don't blame the meteorologists for the second round of shoveling out, but it has been a year, so far, marked by "discovery of the disingenuous." Obama has flip flopped, and not only from his initial campaign stances, in a desperate search of a "win" to halt the hemorrhaging of his political capital. Toyota seems to be proving "image is everything," and I feel for the owners of their recalled vehicles, especially those who are brave enough to drive them in navigating the historic snows. Most particularly, they deserve a straight answer from the Japanese company as to "what it knew, and when it knew it?" Mark McGwire - liar, liar, now we know why his bat was on fire. And John Edwards, well, he is that baby's daddy after all. The list could go on and on, and sadly, more admissions than apologies abound.
The trailing moniker of the 2008 election, Bush bashing having faded and subsided, seems to be that the more things CHANGE, the more they stay the same. I, for one, think the extraordinary physical paralysis of our nation's Capitol for over a week was aptly symbolic of its typical, daily dysfunction. Perhaps the record snowfall was a not so subtle and intended missive from Mother Nature, begging our attention to stop barreling down that familiar highway and urging us not to "stay the course" out of inertia, but to instead really CHANGE our path THIS TIME. The great digout forced US to do things differently, beyond snow removal duty and altered travel routes, an empathetic coming together, if only briefly. Having been confronted with, and overcome, such an overt mirror and roadblock, it would be a shame to squander the potential to broaden and extend the sentiment. It could, after all, lead to 2010 being the Year of finally (taking) the Tiger, no reference to golfer Woods, who like Toyota is on a quest to restore trust and rehabilitate a reputation, or pun intended, by the tail.
This last week in February, again, Washington, DC area weathermen called for "snow showers." Again, they got it wrong; as I write this, not a white flake in site. The landscape, however, is windswept and roaring. Indicative of more rambling bluster on the horizon, or the beginning gusts of strong change? Or maybe a nudging message from mendicant Mother Nature in the wake of continuing mendacity? When will we learn???
As we enter a meteorological change of season, will we March forward, backward, or stay stuck in and proliferate the same pothole? Can there be a Spring awakening without yet another round of extraordinary weather events? Too soon to tell, but I certainly hope so.
Karen Ann DeLuca
