Punxsutawney Phil Obituary
Today is the 2nd day of February, Groundhog day. The sky is gray as if a canvas were stretched horizon to horizon.
Groundhog day is a wistful anticipation of an early end of winter’s cold. According to the German legend, the groundhog emerges from its borrow and has a look around. If the animal is unable to see its shadow that portends an early spring. Conversely if sunlight produces a shadow then six additional weeks of winter are in store.*
The tale is nonsensical, and that’s is precisely the appeal. Our artificial, designed environment, paved roads, central heating, Walmart and the Jewel supermarket, the conveniences of human community are as emotionally innervating as is prolonged winter cold.
Artifice separates us from nature. But wait, wait!? Are we not a species, we are “of nature”? Yes we are.
Today is also my sister’s birthday. My sister did not have a happy life by any standard. Linda would have 
been 74 at this time. She was two years younger than I. Linda died July 27, 2019 .
* In the American version Punxsutawney Phil wakes from his winter’s sleep, emerging to the outside – the animal is caught in a leghold trap. Shortly after Phil was bludgeoned, skinned, and his fur bundled with that of other animals to trim coats bound for the rack at Burlington Coat Factory. Phil only wanted a breath of fresh air…
Time for a melody break. This by Neil Diamond, is a story of our lives, Brother Loves’s Traveling Salvation Show,
