Happy Snow Day, East Coast

It came down stronger than the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In Clemson, we had substantial accumulation on the ground. The temperature rose above 40 fahrenheit by noon and snow fell from the pine trees all afternoon. On my afternoon walk, I saw nature's beauty--white snow on barren branches, bright sun and three inches on the ground. I used to teach Robert Frost's "Birches" every Spring, from about 1999 through 2007; with no other walkers out and about, for a stroll, I felt close to the poem. No swinging on trees but no cobwebs and "crazes" either. One could do worse than be between young and old, and yet we disappoint ourselves with the expression, "middle aged." Richard Ford referred to these years as our "existence period." Did Ford see snow on the ground today? Did Ford see Frost in his trees?