Spring is my second favorite season but it's a very close second to summer. I love spring because it comes bearing gifts, tiny hints of how spectacular summer is going to be when it arrives in turn. Catching those first whiffs of petrichor when it's finally warm enough to leave the windows open during a spring time drizzle, March Maddness, rose buds, the smell of bicyle greese as I try to get bikes ready for the first really warm day of the year, the requisite shot of Florida palm trees during spring traing baseball games. It's the same every year but I unwrap and enjoy each one, spending time, not wanting to rush into summer knowing all too well how quickly it too will come and go. No, if I could stretch spring forever I would...knowing that when my strength gave out and I finally had to let go it wouldn't be a huge loss because summer would be there, waiting.
I usually feel optimistic and hopeful during this time of year, but this year is different. I don't want to be dramatic, but watching Trump and Elon Musk take over the White House I can't help but get the feeling that we're losing something that we're never going to be able to get back. Maybe that already happened during the first Trump term and I was just more naive than I'm willing to admit, even now. It's already very clear a month into this second term that he's only going to stop being president if and when he wants to. There are many sychophants in congress already signaling that they will back whatever their god king wants to do. So now what?
I guess we'll see, for now I'm going to try to distract myself, but I can't help wondering if next spring will feel different.