Walking in a Springtime Wonderland

Today was supposed to mark my return to school after a week of "spring vacation". If the irony in that statement were any sweeter I might have choked as I fell into a diabetic shock. So instead of spending the day basking in whatever knowledge my professors had prepared on expounding upon me, I worked harder than a soviet on a commune removing the snow which had accumulated from my driveway. And unlike our Russian friends, I did not have my commrades to lean upon.



Now correct me if I'm wrong, but when one thinks of the word "snow", it usually conjures up images of lite, fluffy, and even powdery substances. This was not what I shoveled. Whatever I was shoveling weighed roughly 200 lbs./sq. inch. It was utterly ridiculous. Not to mention, the entire time I was shoveling a mixture of snow and branches kept finding their way to the top of my head. They were like laser guided missles in their uncanny precision.



However my worries and problems hardly seem comprabale to the tragedy that took place at Virginia Tech earlier today. It's just difficult to comprehend. My first reaction is to feel for the families and friends of all those who were effected. I can't imagine what they're going through right now. My second is to wonder what sort of effect this is going to have on our schools/gun control. It wont be long before every prospective presendential canidate is spinning this to their benefit. The pundits on the news stations are allready scrambling to fill air time with whomever's willing to talk about it. It's sickening.

This isn't to say that we shouldn't discuss why or how such things happen, or perhaps even how we might prevent things like this from happening in the future. I'm not calling for the abolition of critical discussion, not at all. It just sickens me that moments after such a tragedy has happened that there are allready people trying to figure out how they can capitalize on it or what stance they might take on it will benefit them the most. Partisan politics disgust me as it is and dragging things such as this into the middle of them make it even worse.



I think right now the only thing I can do in response to the tragedy is to be thankful. Thankful for everything I have, thankful for life, and yes, thankful for the snow. With everything in perspective, the rare April snowfall can be a pretty damn beautiful thing.