The Groundhog’s Epiphany
The Groundhog’s Epiphany
The groundhog takes his flowers raw.
Suspiciously he dreams.
So when his sunshine comes to call;
His shadow does he see.
And screams.
What does it feel like to see the world as a materialist, to believe (sorry, to “know”) that you are always, at every second of your single random lucky dice existence, one breath away from nonexistence? Sometimes, in the spirit of play, I try this on for a day or two. I’m never able to move in, but I do enjoy an occasional visit. It sharpens things.
Anyway, that’s what this doggerel describes, this one that’s been spitting animal grins at me and daring me to post it. It’s Groundhog’s Day, it’s the day for doggerel (just ask the Inner Circle), so why not? By the way, Phil didn’t see his shadow this year – either spring is coming, or old Phil is also playing.
Or, if you prefer, on February 2, 2013, on Gobbler’s Knob, near Punxsutawney, PA, located at 40 56.6′ N, 78 58.6′ W, the sun appeared over the horizon at 7:25 AM EST. Some sources say it was 7:26 AM. I have it on good authority that the temperature was 8° F, but that on human skin it felt like -6° F. Humidity was 68%. Dew point was 1° F. Air pressure? Sure, it was 30.10 inches and falling. I don’t know how fast it was falling. Wind was SW at 10 MPH. Visibility was 10 miles. The sky was cloudy. The clouds obscured the sun. There was not enough light differential between the ground areas on each side of a Marmota monax (average length 16 to 26 inches; weight 4 to 9 lbs.) for the human eye to distinguish a shadow.
There is nothing to see here. Go home.
You are reading a post from Matter Notes, Karen Michalson’s blog on creativity as spirituality and the war on the humanities. Her most recent novel, The Maenad’s God, is available on Amazon.
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About that screaming….
Never, not even as a child, have I ever understood any of the groundhog shadow myth. Either something is a amiss in my mind’s attic or there’s something amiss in the attic of the collective cultural mentality. Whichever it is, it’s okay, I can do without groundhog shadows.
Well, there’s shadows and there’s shadows. A lot of Groundhog’s Day websites reference an old Scottish Gaelic proverb in which the weather prognosticator is a serpent with the ability to slide out of its hole through three feet of snow. I suspect “Serpent’s Day” might have some marketing problems, though.
Pity about the marketing problems for serpents in this day and age. Probably because we are awash in so many of the human varieties of serpents who give snakes in general a bad reputation. Would it be possible to bring a legal case regarding character assassination on behalf of serpents everywhere? Hmm. Perhaps such an action would require your employment of both your artistic and legal talents. Such would surely prove your ability to be both a writer and a lawyer to certain in-boxed mentalities.
How about those Scottish “snakes” and their human incarnations in the modern world?
A class action suit for defamation on behalf of serpents everywhere? Let the lawyer jokes begin!