Spring?

It is very cold here, despite the passing of the equinox. We went to sunrise service by the river on Easter morning and nearly froze--temperatures at about 29 with lots of wind; next year, assuming similar weather, several more layers are needed, or else we should choose more music and flowers and heat inside the church. It is hard, some days, to believe in global warming; it seems like garden work should start but there isn't much opportunity. There are a few brave blossoms in my pictures--these are snowdrops and Danforth iris.

It's hard to know what to say about politics. We thought Obama's speech a week ago was astonishing; it's remarkable to have a politician talk to us like grownups. I understand exactly, I think, what he was saying about the paradox and complexity of personal loyalties. The effect isn't entirely easy to sort out amid all the chatter--I think, in fact, no one knows yet. Pennsylvania should tell us a good bit; Obama hasn't yet picked up in the polls there but I keep waiting and hoping.

I think, interestingly enough, that people who are church-goers and those who aren't have a very different reaction to the whole problem of Reverend Wright. If you belong to a congregation and feel a part of that community you aren't likely to march off to another church (as many commentators have suggested Obama should have done) on the basis of some controversial remarks from the pulpit. On the other hand, it does seem surprising that he and his campaign did not do a better job of anticipating this trouble.

We remain fascinated and awed by James' remarkable journalistic coup in Tibet. By being the only journalist there he has become, in effect, part of the story. The New York Times interviewed him for yesterday's piece (I assume he can't himself write for them) and described him wandering around the city and wondering when the police would show up--he was, in fact, in many ways the centerpiece of their reporting. Although no longer the centerpiece of the Economist on line, his briefing on the overall situation in Tibet is excellent and well worth reading.

And, in closing, a picture of our seal and of the warning sign placed by the Mystic Aquarium to keep people from bothering him. I guess it really isn't all that unusual to find a seal here; with water still cold and lots of fish on this shore it's a reasonable place for him to flop about for a few weeks. Yesterday neither sign nor animal could be seen; I wonder if he notified the Aquarium that he was planning to move on.