It hit sixty in New York this weekend. In Florida and Arizona baseball spring training is well under way. All over the country we turned our clocks ahead one hour. Is there any doubt that spring is here?
I don’t want to give you false hope. Winter is always ready to give us one last blow. This time of year temperatures can go from mild to frigid overnight. Still, I am optimistic; I think we may be done with winter.
Spring is definitely the season of hope. Whatever fight winter might have left, it’s finished. I even saw people walking around in shorts yesterday. How much more hopeful can you get? In most parts of the world the change of the seasons is inevitable and we tend to attach significance to them. With signs of new life all around us who can resist thinking spring means personal rebirth as well? This is when we pull ourselves out of hibernation and engage life with renewed energy and optimism.
This past week there was a preponderance of bad news for the country. People are losing their jobs and their healthcare and their homes at an astonishing rate. Few of us have ever seen anything like this. Yet I believe the one thing Americans will not lose, indeed cannot lose, is hope. We are a people of hope. When we envision the future with hope, we claim a destiny. Hope is the ultimate expression of faith, a belief that tomorrow will be better than today, and that today, with all its troubles, is still a gift.
All right. So maybe I’m going overboard because of a slightly freakish warm spell. But no matter what, today I’ll be wearing shorts.
Edward Grinnan is the Editor-in-Chief and Vice President of GUIDEPOSTS Publications.
