Probably like you, I’ve been consuming a tremendous amount of news, more than usual, both televised and online. Normally I will tune in to Lester Holt at 6:30 p.m. or soon thereafter, when I can sit and click “play” on the DVR, then round out the content with various CNN segments throughout the evening if no first-run Fixer Upper or Shark Tank episodes are available. My home laptop’s daily browser history is jammed with visits to CNN, Bloomberg, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, and a few others. Yes, a glutton for punishment.
Of course, we just completed a Presidential Election and are underway into the first three months, or the first 100 days for those who are counting against that measure, of President Trump’s –oh, am I really writing this- four year term. To try and develop a rounded and bi-partisan perspective, I’ve added a few more news channels to the daily intake. The strategy is admittedly failing and I’m ready to turn it all off. However, ignorance is not bliss. I keep watching and listening and hoping.
As the weather segment aired last night, I spotted snowflakes in Tuesday’s column. We’ve had a mild winter down here on the South Shore so I’m fine with that. A little shoveling is good for the soul. Peeking right toward Friday and the weekend, my eyes halted a day short. There in Thursday’s weather column was a pudgy brown blob of a graphic just below the projected high-temperature for the day. Granted, I’m a month or two short of a routine visit to the ophthalmologist and had to squint quite a bit to figure out what I was seeing. Remembering we are somewhere near mid-winter, and squinting just a bit more, I realized that Thursday is Groundhog Day. Nice, neither controversial nor inflammatory, and nothing to send the masses in search of the last bits of bread and milk! Now, this is news and an event I can wrap my brain around without the discordant and dissonant content of the last number of days. Thursday morning I’m skipping Sean Spicer, changing channels, and looking forward to Punxsutawney Phil’s broadcast from Pennsylvania’s soft coal mining region. Will he see his shadow up on Gobbler’s Knob or not?
Ok, I really don’t care if the prediction is six more weeks of winter, or if spring is rounding the bend. I do care more about how our policies and posturing impact citizens, domestic and across the globe. However, in times of discord and dare I say conflict, simple things can help bring us all together and forget pain and suffering, and “us vs. them” disagreements, if only for brief moments. A little like spending time in the bleachers at a professional baseball game during the height of WWII. Leave it all behind and take respite from troubles that surround. Maybe the pudgy groundhog and his shadow is a weak comparison to nine innings and a bag of Cracker Jacks, but at least it’s something light-hearted to look forward to during these unsettling times of change.