WELCOME, PROFESSOR NEMO

"Snow Storm", acrylic, by John K. Harrell

While the media tries to stir up fears about the fierce storm that approaches from the west, I’m holding out my hand in welcome. It would be easy to surrender to the fears that will be working hard to scare us in the next few days, but it might be just as easy to say to this storm, “Come in. Please be comfortable and teach me what you can.” It might be possible to see it as an opportunity, a first-rate chance to learn inspiring lessons. The new storm named Nemo could bring nothing less than a high-level learning experience, sort of like a graduate college class in level-headedness and the uplifting aspects of winter. I’ve been looking forward to finding stimulating courses to take in my retirement, and Nemo might make the perfect professor, a teacher who can take me to advanced levels of attentiveness and insight. Why not welcome a situation that can show me new ways to stay observant and enthusiastic? Why not gladly greet an instructor who can set out high standards for living in a princely way? Why not hang out flags of welcome? Sure, a person might be anxious about possible problems – power outages, the furnace stopping, frozen pipes -- but a person might also be grateful to be given the chance to choose new ways to use his new snowshoes, new ways to watch a world turn white, new ways to stay passionate in a stormy world.