Lion-n-Lamb

It's minutes before March begins in ernest. At midnight I'll say "rabbit-rabbit" like I do at the beginning of each month, as I have since grade school. But I'll also hear the phrase "In like a Lion, Out like a Lamb" echo deep within my brain. And sure enough, tonight's weather forecast is for another 4-6" of snow starting tomorrow night and running into Monday morning! In like a Lion, indeed!

Will March go out like a Lamb, with an early exit, say around the Ides of March? Historically this has been a chaotic and troublesome month on the human psyche and political tensions of man. I'm teaching both Julius Caesar and Hamlet right now. Julius Caesar in the hand of Shakespeare etched the symbolic dangers of the Ides of March being a time of turmoil and unclear thinking. Brutus didn't tell Portia why the Senators had come to visit. Caesar ignored Calpurnia's plea to stay home that day, and instead was wooed by Decius' flattery and the promise of being vital to Rome. Hamlet fell in March after Ophelia drowned in February. She being pregnant, fatherless, with a brother abroad and Hamlet, seemingly mad and removed. Mid-winter cloistered confusion lends itself to mercurial March and the consequences of previous poor choices.

I've spent the day looking at huge floating chunks of sea ice, bigger than refrigerator sized slabs, while watching a pair of Harlequin Ducks with three baby ducks, fishing in, around and under the ice.   This, while watching, from ICA's observation room on the 4th floor, a regatta of at least 20 boats sail around the harbor. February in Boston with baby ducks and sailing boats. Yup, it was just at freezing, the sun high in a cloud free sky, and people were out and walking about. Our minds and bodies liberated by a little Vitamin D, a stroll and greeting others with smiling faces.

Meanwhile, inside two different buildings, half a state apart, my niece and my daughter were both entered in tournaments: Volleyball and Speech & Debate. Just as Caesar was returning home for conquering the last corner of the Roman Empire from Spain, and King Hamlet of Denmark had fought a war with Norway, the New England Regional and Massachusetts tournaments are raging full force. My daughter and niece both did well in their separate events, each spending 10-14 hours of today proving themselves to their peers under fire!

Now, I'm weary from a day of sun, art, family and good times together. It's been March for just a few minutes, and I'm ready to count some sheep to fall asleep.

May this coming storm be the last Lion we have to face this winter and may the lamb come early and softly.

Good Night, restless natives, G'night.