The last day. It has been good but now we move on. Remember Christmas? Doesn’t it seem like yesterday? We had an arctic cold snap. It was the kind of cold that hurt. After that, it has been semi-spring conditions.

Like most Golden Years people I can tell you of the three feet of snow that I walked to school in…uphill both ways… We would fire up the coal stove until it glowed cherry red. If you were in the same room or proximity to the brilliant glowing embers you were hot…if you were in another part of the house you required a sweater.

I guess we can not say Happy New Year any longer.

It was about this time each year that we kids in Eldorado began to realize school does not last forever. Winter and its cold and snow kept us somewhat focused on our studies. But when spring arrived we knew that our redemption draweth nie.

The eclipse is coming in April. The last one was a religious experience for me… I saw that we are a bit of carbon-based life in a universe of mystical mystery. We putter around and struggle and strive when none of us will get out of this world alive…and yet the last eclipse illustrated the distinct possibility that indeed we are bound for greater things after the event of death.

We look through a glass darkly the Bible tells us. Our perception of reality is so far removed from what surrounds us that we could be likened to an ant on an anthill. There is much more that we do not know than what we know.

I as most of my generation was raised reading the ‘Dick and Jane’ books. We also received a periodical called the ‘Weekly Reader.’ The narratives taught us children the basics of living well with others. Share your goods…be kind…take a nap when you are tired…do not fight.

The last eclipse taught me that we are still in the Dick and Jane writings and need to re-subscribe to the Weekly Reader…