-- Charles Caleb Colton
Reading: from the Groundhog Day FAQ on the website of “The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club”
1. Yes, Punxsutawney Phil is the only true weather forecasting groundhog. The others are just imposters.
2. There has been only one Punxsutawney Phil. Punxsutawney Phil gets his longevity from drinking "groundhog punch" (a secret recipe). One sip, which is administered every summer at the Groundhog Picnic, gives him seven more years of life.
3. On February 2nd, Phil comes out of his burrow on Gobbler's Knob, in front of thousands of faithful followers from all over the world, to predict the weather for the rest of the winter.
4. According to legend, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.
Reading: by Mary Oliver from a poem entitled “Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond”
As for life,
I’m humbled,
I’m without words
sufficient to say
how it has been hard as flint,
and soft as a spring pond,
both of these
and over and over,
and long pale afternoons besides,
and so many mysteries
beautiful as eggs in a nest,
still unhatched
though warm and watched over
by something I’ve never seen –
a tree angel, perhaps,
or a ghost of holiness.
Every day I walk out into the world
To be dazzled, then to be reflective…
Reading: by Pete Seeger, from a story he tells as part of the song “Seek and You Shall Find” (which appeared on the album, Waist Deep in the Big Muddy and Other Love Songs, released in 1967)
There was once a king in the olden days. He had three sons and he wanted to give them a good education. He called in his wise men. He said, "I wish you'd boil down all the world's wisdom into one book, and I'm going to give it to my sons and have them learn it."
So the wise men went away. Took them a whole year, and they came back with a beautiful leather-bound volume, trimmed in gold. The king leafed through it, "Hmm... Very good. Hmm... Yes! This is it!" And he gives it to his sons and he says, "OK, learn it!"
Then he turned to the wise men and he said, "You know, you did such a good job with that, I wonder if you couldn't boil down all the world's wisdom into one sentence."
Well, the wise men went away. It took them five years. When they came back their beards must've been dragging on the ground. They said, "Your Majesty, we have decided upon the sentence."
"What is it?" says the king.
"This too shall pass."
I guess the king didn't have anything better to do with his wise men. He said, "I wonder if you couldn't boil down all the world's wisdom into one word?"
The poor men must've groaned. They went away. It took them ten years. When they came back they were all bent over. The king said, "Oh yes, what was that word?" He'd forgotten all about his little whim.
They said, "Your Majesty, the one word is: Maybe."
Getting It Right
A Sermon Delivered on February 2, 2014
By
The Reverend Axel H. Gehrmann
Today is Groundhog Day. And at 7:25 this morning, Eastern Time, Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow and – I am sorry say – saw his shadow. That means six more weeks of winter for us. On the positive side though, I can tell you, the National Climatic Data Center has been tracking Phil’s predictions for several years now, and has determined that his forecasts are “on average, inaccurate.” Scientists say, “The groundhog has shown no talent for predicting the arrival of spring, especially in recent years.”
I think it is safe to say that today’s Groundhog Day observances in Punxsutawney, PA, are conducted tongue-in-cheek. I doubt there are many who seriously consider the designated groundhog a real weather prophet or prognosticator. It is a celebration supported by the tourist trade and the village chamber of commerce.
As historians tell us, “The trail of groundhog history actually leads back to Clymer H. Freas, city editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper. In 1887, he was inspired by a group of local hunters and gourmets who held a groundhog hunt followed by a picnic barbecue of, well, you know. Anyway, Freas thought it so much fun that he wrote up the group as the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club and went on to promote the Punxsutawney Groundhog as the official weather forecaster. As he embellished the story year after year, other newspapers picked it up and soon everyone looked to Punxsutawney Phil for the critical prediction of when spring would return to the nation.” (National Climatic Data Center website on Groundhog Day)
But the roots of Groundhog Day go deeper. They can be traced to the Gaelic spring festival Imbolc, a pagan celebration which is still observed in Ireland and Scotland today. Traditionally Imbolc included “weather divination.” On this day, people would watch to see whether serpents or badgers emerged from the winter dens – and this, they believed, would tell them something about the weeks of winter remaining.
I can certainly relate to the desire to know what the future holds. Especially this year, with its unusual arctic temperatures and the recurring “polar vortex,” I find myself checking the weather forecasts more and more frequently, longing for the day when winter loosens its icy grip on us.
* * *
“Groundhog Day” is also the title of a movie from 1993, a romantic comedy with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. The movie is set in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. It’s the story of a TV weatherman, named Phil, who is sent to Punxsutawney with a small film crew, to offer live coverage of the annual groundhog weather prophesy. After the groundhog observances, a freak blizzard descends on the area, and Phil and his co-workers find themselves stranded in town for the day. The next morning, for reasons that aren’t explained, Phil finds himself waking up in the same Bed & Breakfast, at exactly the same time as the day before. In fact, it is February 2nd all over again. Everyone is acting just as they did the day before, only for Phil it is a strange and puzzling do-over. The day ends with same blizzard, which keeps him stuck in town. And the next morning, for Phil, it is February 2nd, Groundhog Day, again, and again, and again.
The movie tells the story of Phil’s strange predicament. At the outset, he is portrayed as self-centered and vain. He is bored with his job, and considers the coverage of Groundhog Day to be beneath him, a waste of his precious time and talent. He sees himself as destined for a more lucrative network news position, for fame and fortune. And he uses every opportunity to remind his co-workers that he is superior to them.
Being mysteriously stuck in a small town he despises evokes a range of responses as the day is repeated, again and again. First he is simply puzzled. Then he is elated, realizing that he has a real advantage over others, knowing how their day will unfold before they do. He indulges in every imaginable pleasure, without concern for the consequences. His hedonism and egotism reach new heights. But over time he realizes that these pleasures are superficial and ultimately not satisfying. He tries to foster a more meaningful relationship with an attractive co-worker, and fails miserably. He grows horribly depressed. And what seemed like an eternally recurring day of happiness and indulgence, becomes an inescapable experience of despair. He commits suicide. Again and again. But invariably wakes up every morning to the very same day.
Finally he realizes that in order to find true happiness, he needs to fill his days with acts of kindness and creativity. Because he has relived the same day countless times, he discovers dozens of opportunities to help people: the old ladies whose car got a flat tire – he promptly changes it for them; the boy who falls from a tree – he catches him in the nick of time; and the man who chokes on a piece of steak at dinner is saved by Phil’s surprisingly skilled Heimlich maneuver. He learns to play the piano, reads literature, and becomes a master ice-sculptor. Having become a different person in the process, Phil is finally able to connect meaningfully with the co-worker he has come to love. In the end he is able to make the very most of this one single day, with no expectation of reward, no hopes for salvation or escape, perfectly at peace with himself and the world. The next morning, the spell is broken. It is February 3rd. And Phil is free to continue his life – a very different life than the one he knew when the story began.
* * *
It’s a good movie. Silly, but also thought-provoking. (If you’ve never seen, or if you’d like to see it again – it’s showing this evening at 7:30 at the Art Theater.) It wasn’t a big box-office hit when it was first released, but over the years has become a cult classic. A few years ago the U.S. National Film Registry added it to a list of “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” movies.
And, thanks to the movie, the term “Groundhog Day” has entered common use to convey the sense of an unpleasant experience that is repeated again and again. So, for instance, during the Iraq war military personnel used the term “Groundhog Day” to mean: Every day of your tour in Iraq – the days never change – always long and hot, and the same events keep recurring. (“‘Embrace the Suck’ and More Military Speak,” NPR, Mar. 8, 2007)
Interestingly, the movie also struck a chord for a lot of religious people. After the movie was released, its director Harold Ramis heard from Jesuit priests, rabbis and Buddhists, all of whom sent letters saying, “Oh, you must be a Christian, because your movie beautifully expresses Christian belief,” or Jewish belief, or Buddhist belief.
Some say the movie perfectly illustrates the Buddhist idea of “samsara,” the continuing cycle of rebirth that Buddhists associate with human suffering, and which we can escape through diligent religious practice, hard work, and good deeds, until we achieve nirvana.
Others says the movie resonates with Jewish viewers, because the main character is rewarded by being returned to earth again and again to perform more mitzvahs, or good deeds, rather than reaching nirvana, or being granted the heavenly reward imagined by Christians. Rabbi Niles Goldstein says, “The movie tells us, as Judaism does, that the work doesn’t end until the world has been perfected.”
The film critic and historian Michael Bronski sees not only elements of Jewish but also Christian theology. He says, “The groundhog is clearly the resurrected Christ, the ever hopeful renewal of life at springtime, at a time of pagan-Christian holidays... And when I say that the groundhog is Jesus, I say that with great respect.” (“Groundhog Almighty,” by Alex Kuczynski, New York Times, Dec. 7, 2003)
* * *
If we could boil down all the world’s wisdom into one short sentence, it would be “this too shall pass.” The bitter cold winter weather will pass. We don’t know exactly when, but sooner or later, the temperatures will warm up, the sun will rise higher in the sky, and spring will come.
Likewise the trials and tribulations of our own lives will pass by. Sometimes life is hard, hard as flint. Hard as ice. But it won’t stay that way. Change is inevitable. There will be times when life is soft and gentle again. Soft as a spring pond, and full of mysteries as beautiful as eggs in a nest, unhatched, and watched over by a ghost of holiness.
Hard and soft, cold and warm, both of these, over and over. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven… a time of love, a time of hate, a time of war, a time of peace.” The words from Ecclesiastes make the same point: “this too shall pass.”
But this is only half of the lesson of Pete Seeger’s story about the king and his wise men. Yes, change is inevitable. It is the single certainty of our lives: our seasons and our situations will change.
What is uncertain is how we will respond. Our lives are filled with an endlessly recurring variety of challenges and opportunities. Again and again, we are offered opportunities to choose hate or love. Again and again, we are challenged to choose between war and peace. Will we choose peace? Maybe. Will we choose love? Maybe. All the wisdom of the world can be boiled down to this single word: maybe.
This week, I have been reminded of the choices Pete Seeger made in his long life. He was a singer, who sang for the labor movements of the 1940s and 50s, for civil rights marches and anti-Vietnam War rallies in the 1960s, and for environmental and antiwar causes in the 1970s and beyond. He marched along with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped make the song “We Shall Overcome” an anthem for civil rights.
Pete Seeger was also a Unitarian Universalists. I heard him at the General Assembly in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2005, when he was in his mid-eighties. Having sung all his life, his voice was beginning to fail him. But that didn’t matter, because as far as he was concerned performances were always above all about engaging his listeners, and getting everyone to sing together. And that’s just what he did with us, at Fort Worth. It was a powerful moment.
This week, at age 94, Pete Seeger passed away. But his songs, and his unwavering efforts to promote peace and justice, will continue to inspire us for years to come.
* * *
We may not be magically stranded in a small snowy town on February 2nd, cursed and blessed to repeat the same day, again and again. But we do have many, many days in our lives. Thousands and thousands of days. Every day the sun rises, and we can either do just what we have always done, or we can try to do something different. We can acknowledge how we may have sometimes been self-centered or indifferent to others, and we can choose to be kind and caring instead. We can acknowledge how we sometimes wallow in our misery, and choose to take a different tack, and do what we know will make us truly happy
Every day, and every season of the year, we are offered opportunities to choose how we will live. Every day we can choose to heal and not to harm, to help and not to hinder, to bless and not to curse. Every day we can take a step toward happiness.
May our every day be a small step toward happiness.
May our every day be a small step toward peace and love.
May our every day take us one step closer to a better world.
Amen.
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