So Little Gold...

As Robert Frost reminds us, "Nature's first green is gold, / Her hardest hue to hold." That "first green" isn't quite visible yet here in New Jersey, after a month of one nor'easter after another, but today was a definite leap forward into spring: 50 degrees and rainy this morning, with birds singing as if to make up for lost time. The first few tentative blooms of round-leaf hepatica have appeared in the woods, although our nights are still cold.

Metaphorical gold is in short supply these days. Bad news—or worse, absurd news—reigns supreme, as it has almost since I began this blog over a year ago. Politics has sullied everything these past 400+ days. I retreat into literature and art to escape the public spectacle of a president so craven and inane, but then I read of John Steinbeck being attacked for writing about the conditions of farm workers in California in the 1930s, and then I watch Ken Burns's series on the Vietnam War, and realize, it was ever thus.

Nothing gold can stay. Gold is not an illusion, but it is also not a permanent part of reality. Spring will remind us of this; a few golden early summer days will remind us again; and of course the creativity and love we can foster in our personal lives will offer glimpses of what is truly worthy, truly of value. There are many golden moments in my classroom, as well.

Create some gold of your own today, and treasure it.