Groundhog Day 2023, 6 More Weeks.

 Today we celebrate the psychic impressions of a chubby, large, mid-western rodent, Punxsutawny Phil. As things happen when Phil sees his shadow we are supposed to, "Enjoy" 6 more weeks of winter.  I'm not really thrilled about the prospect of being thrust into more winter than is normally scheduled during a season.  However, this has been a fairly good year and we have only suffered minorly the doom and gloom of snow, and as of yet haven't been tortured with the extreme cold that Northern New England is often known for.  That is until this weekend, but we shall cross that bridge when we get there.

Punxsutawny Phil has wiggled himself into the mythological mind of the American public.  Since the tradition of having a Ground hog predict the length of winter is 137 years old today, Phil must be an immortal rodent.  He has had his cult of top hat clad gentlemen around him all that time.  This must be a secret school, a forbidden subject, or just asylum laden lunacism that captures the imaginations of those in power, and the un-initiated masses.   Phil has become a demigod.

In 1993, Bill Murray stared in a movie titled, "Groundhog day," where the protagonist is caught in a time loop until he learns a serious life lesson about the proper ways of treating and respecting people.  Of course Murray's character, "Phil" Connors is chasing the girl, Andie MacDowell, trying to re-kindle a past relationship.  However the power of the other, "Phil" traps him in the loop and Phil gets to relive Groundhog day over, and over until he learns some serious stuff.  It lasts long enough for him to learn a whole spectrum of skill sets that help him capture the girl.  Years of skills are programed into Phil over the course of this Groundhog day.  He is cursed. Phil the Groundhog is no force to mess with.

Finely there comes the point in the movie where, Phil Connors can no longer take the stress and tries to commit a grizzly suicide by driving himself and the Groundhog off a cliff in an old red truck.  Of course it doesn't work and he has to keep pushing on with his task.  The parody of 6 more weeks of winter, maybe?

Groundhog day is celebrated about half way through the season when our collective minds have slipped just enough for the masses to accept the possibility that a Groundhog can actually predict the course of the rest of winter.  Hey, why the heck not?  After all we tend to give credit to several news casters who have made careers out of lying to the public, the Weather Men.  

So if your like me and only subtly believe in the Cosmic Rodent, hold on tight, up here in the North Country it's winter right up until the Fat Lady Sings.  

Peace and Balance,

John