ARCHIVE

Of daffodils and disarmament

Spring seems to have finally arrived. And it is about darn time, by golly! A traffic-stopping ice storm two weeks ago, 78 degrees on the bank thermometer Sunday, and severe thunderstorm warnings with all manner of sized hail tonight . . . ahh, Kansas! I have daffodils ready to bloom and crocuses already in full flower.

This is my favorite season. When I first came "south" for college some 30-odd years ago, I was astounded at how early the warmth and sunshine arrived. After 18 years in the cold frozen northern counties of Illinois and Iowa (where it seems winter goes on until June), this part of the country was a revelation. I never wanted to go back.

Over the years I developed the habit of watching the winter wheat. It is my spring clock. I relish the stage we see now. Fields so green they almost hurt your eyes.

Several years ago my mother came to Kansas for an early spring visit. On the drive to Peabody from Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, she said, "Susan, what is that?" as she pointed to some greening fields along I-135. She thought they were turf farms. No, Ma, just spring in Kansas. It always looks like this.

This is the season of renewal. The older I get, the more I look forward to spring. It means I have made it through yet another dreary cold and dark winter.

The holidays of November and December have their redeeming moments, but there is nothing like the season we are enjoying now.

Except, of course, that this spring we are on the brink of another national crisis. I had hoped that with the daffodils we might see disarmament in Iraq . . . don't know why, but it was a thought. The season of renewal. Maybe things would go well. Maybe we would not have to send our young men and women into battle. By the time you read this, they almost certainly will be in harm's way. Some of them will be from our hometowns. All of them will have our support and prayers.

As a child of the '60s I am pretty much a "give peace a chance" person. But I place the blame for this impending confrontation squarely on the shoulders of the Butcher of Baghdad. If anyone on the planet could take a stand for peace and make a difference, it would be Saddam Hussein. Given that he is not interested in anything but his own survival and dominance, I don't see that we have a choice.

I expect that we are pretty safe here in Marion County. I expect we will see the daffodils bloom and fade, spring will move into summer, then fall, and then winter once again. Perhaps by the time the daffodils poke through the ground again there will be rest in the world. Maybe not peace, but rest, and perhaps a forward movement toward peace. One can only hope.

— SUSAN MARSHALL

Quantcast