Punxsutawney Phil

Today is Groundhog Day. All of the banks and schools are closed and this is a postal holiday. All of the pre-holiday shopping is done. The special food is being prepared. The men will spend the afternoon watching the Big Game and the clock is ticking down to those after-holiday sales.

25% of the nations business is done during the month surrounding Groundhog Day. The stores take on extra, seasonal workers to handle the crush; and toy and electronic manufacturers around the globe consider February 2nd make-or-break for their businesses.

The national suicide rate increases dramatically in the days surrounding this otherwise festive occasion as the disenfranchised and lovelorn hopelessly watch the joy and fellowship of others. This, of all times throughout the year, reminds them of their loneliness and what losers they truly are.

And one has to wonder if we haven't, somewhere along the way, lost the innocence and true meaning of Groundhog Day? Have we become so jaded and wrapped up in commercialism that the simple message of the Rodent on the Hill has been forgotten? Has Phil not taught us that it is not today that counts but, rather, six weeks from now?

Sure, it is easy to get caught up in all of the school pageants and who doesn't want to see the Rockettes Groundhog Extravaganza? But look around. Look at the faces of the children. They are the ones who still believe. You can see it in their eyes and how they can barely go to sleep on Groundhog Eve; and how, at the end of the big day, they lay exhausted in a pile of toys and wrapping paper, gorged on holiday twigs and berries, dreaming of their own shadows.

Things haven't changed that much since we were children. And they won't for our grandchildren, either, because where ever there are children there will always be a fat, hairy shut-in squinting out at the daylight and planning their future.

Happy Groundhog Day!

ADDENDUM: Phil did not see his shadow so we will have an early spring -- fueling, I am certain, the global warming wackos.
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