Despite the fact that it's routinely the season when my senses come under siege by the tiny empire of Pollen's tireless armies, I usually enjoy Spring, and cannot help but look forward to it every year. I'm regularly reminded of Springtime at my college in Central Ohio. Denison University was situated in the small town of Granville, nestled within the rolling, verdant hills (uncharacteristic of the state in question) of the somewhat unfortunately-named Licking County. Come Spring, the campus would become almost-maddeningly green. The air would thicken with the lush promise of the impending Summer. The warming temperatures would drive virtually every student out onto the various wide rectangles of grass to bask and frolic. Windows would be thrown open, and music would rapturously echo throughout the bowl-shaped campus in an impromptu celebration of the season of rebirth. I have a clutch of played-to-death mixtapes from these years that never fail to take me back to the era, inexorably linked to my memories of Springtime.
This Spring hasn't quite turned out as rosily. On Sunday, a record breaking Nor'easter spread its vast grey wings over the tri-state area, dumping more rain on this city than it has experienced in a century. While I grumbled about having that unrelenting wetness make things inconvenient (the strains of Zeppelin's cover of "When The Levee Breaks" -- boom - BASH -- boom'b'boom -- BASH, etc. -- on an endless loop in my head), I was later to learn that up in Westchester, the families of both my sister and one of my sisters-in-law had to evacuate after flood waters penetrated the basements of their respective homes.
A day later, of course, those grisly events took place on the campus of Virginia Tech. Over at the Job, we've been monitoring every tragic, inexplicable development and exploring ever angle of the story, attempting to approach it - to paraphrase a colleague -- from a place of empathy that doesn't ring as rote and hollow as the variety you're likely to find on CNN, Fox et al. Students on the Virginia Tech campus have been forever robbed of the very sort've experience and associations I was just waxing rhapsodic about in the first paragraph and so much more. It is not a happy story.
So, while the calendar might be telling me it's Spring, I'm just not feeling it.
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