Last Tuesday, Linda and I went to the SU/Cornell lax tilt. How's that for journalistic brevity? If you follow lacrosse, you will know it was a debacle, with Cornell triumphing 11 to 6. When the game is bad, one needs occasionally to people watch. In the row in front of us sat a high school girl with her dad. She was from JD: it said so on her jacket, and when they sat down, I figured she would soon get out her phone and start texting. Miraculously, it didn't happen. She watched the entire game with her father. They talked to each other. They ate nachos. Not once did either rely on anything electronic for communication. Being an outspoken opponent of texting disease, I was so happy. I wanted to say to them, "You two are great! You still talk to each other and have fun." I didn't for fear they would think I was a little weird. . .Two days pass and I am talking to Todd Sorensen, an FMHS history teacher, about something technological, and I mention this nice encounter to him. He says, "She was probably grounded from her phone." The idealist in me shouted, "No," but the cynic wondered if Todd could be right.
We were coming home from Schenectady yesterday, and, in Madison County, hit a terrible sleet storm. It was awful, truly hellacious, which made me ponder the ecological question , "Is there climate change in hell?" I have no answer, but my favorite poet Robert Frost, hinted around the possibility in his wonderful verse "Fire and Ice."
Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
--Robert Frost
Love the way the man could get you thinking with so few syllables.
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