As February quickly—or not so quickly— comes to a close, one thing is certain: Winter is still in full effect. All this despite the fact that on February 2nd Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, thus foreshadowing an early spring. Hmm…
According to holiday legend, winter will continue if the groundhog sees its shadow; if the groundhog fails to see its shadow, however, then spring is right around the corner. Despite the popularity of this yearly proclamation, several ambiguities shroud this hypothesis. Let’s break things down and sort fact from fiction.
Here are a couple things we are certain of:
-Groundhog Day always falls on February 2nd.
-Bill Murray is in a popular movie named Groundhog Day.
-Groundhog Day is often improperly cited as “Groundhog’s Day” or “Groundhogs day.” No, the marmots do not own the day; they aren’t possessive like that. And no, this day isn’t shared amongst multiple groundhogs: Punxsutawney Phil is the leading authority on all things February 2nd.
-After a long thirty-one days of January most people are quite ready and willing for winter to run its course.
Here are a couple things we are uncertain of:
-Why does America continue to celebrate this holiday?
-Is Punxsutawney Phil even this groundhog’s real name? If so, he had one cruel-hearted mother.
-Mr. Phil reportedly speaks “groundhogese” when he is communicating with his handlers. How/where did this fascinating language originate? Who learned it first: The groundhog or the groundhog wranglers? What came first: The chicken or the egg? We will never know.
-Anything (and everything) Siri tells us.[1]
(No she doesn’t.)
According to USA Today, “this is only the 19th time out of 123 in his recorded history (there are 10 years where no record remains) that Phil hasn’t been able to find his shadow.” Hmm…
And perhaps in an even more shocking tidbit, Mr. Phil’s predictions are generally more wrong than they are right.
Curiouser and curiouser.
All this uncertainty can leave one feeling pretty torn: Is spring coming? Is winter here to stay? Can groundhogs really talk? One look outside calls Mr. Phil’s “certainty” into question. Do the words “polar vortex” mean nothing to him? Thus, can we determine what the weather will hold, beyond a shadow of a doubt, based on Punxsutawney Phil’s shadow-less endeavor?
No.
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Phil’s “shadow” predictions prohibit us from speaking with unabashed confidence and utter authority on the matter.
Alas.
While we cannot determine what the weather will hold, we can determine how we react to what the weather will hold. And, in determining how we will react to what the weather will hold, one question is crucial: What will the ice hold?
This is the very question Cam and I asked ourselves when we—in an attempt to determine how we would react to what the weather was currently holding—decided to snowshoe across a lake.
We had packed up the car and driven the half-mile required to find a lake in the state of Minnesota with the intention of snowshoeing around the water. However, when we arrived on the shores of Medicine Lake we witnessed clusters of tiny icehouses seemingly defying gravity while warming fishermen daring enough to brave the cold, and our perspective began to shift. Did we dare walk on water?
Indeed we did.
Despite the ice withstanding the weight of nearly one hundred icehouses, I found myself wracked with doubt and uncertainty. Would the ice hold? What if our added weight sent it over the edge, causing us to crack through the frozen crystals to meet our frigid demise?[2] And yet, the call to adventure promptly silenced my unwarranted anxieties, and we took our first snowshoe-clad steps across the arctic waters.
What followed was an invigorating hour of chomping through snow and romping atop the frozen surface. While Cam fell to the ground several times[3], neither of us fell in, and we both thoroughly enjoyed our time “walking on water.” We laughed, we cried[4], and we cried laughing at each other’s antics. All in all, it was time well spent that never would have happened if we had conceded to uncertainties.
How many things in life are we truly certain about? Perhaps more interestingly, how many things in life do we want to be truly certain about?
If I walk on a frozen lake, then I want to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, it is in fact frozen enough that I won’t fall through.
If I plot my next blog post and Bryan Adam’s “Cuts Like A Knife” comes on as the next song in my running playlist, then I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that my next color pick is a confirmed “go[5].”
But, on a larger scale, I am quite certain I am okay with uncertainty.
Should we know the answers to everything? Should we want to know the answers to everything? That depends on your personality type, but I most certainly don’t think so. I would rather embrace the possibility that exists when a groundhog doesn’t give us an exact countdown until spring, the possibility that only prospers when seeded amidst the unknown.
And sure, might that ambiguity “cut like a knife” and lead to inevitable frustration?
“Yeah, but it feels so right.”
And that I can say without a shadow of a doubt.
[1] When I asked Siri to help me with my “research” for this post, this is how she responded… Siri is historically known for her “talks” with Punxsutawney Phil? Likely story. However, if I know one thing it is that this woman/robot/machine will continue to evade answering my questions until the end of time. That Siri is one cheeky lady.
[2] Okay, I fully acknowledge the problematic logic associated with this question and embrace the scientific improbability that would prevent this scenario from ever existing. I am just saying that if it would happen, then it would happen to me.
[3] By choice…the boy sure loves his snow time.
[4] The cold can really do a number on your tear ducts!
[5] True story: I already had isolated “shadow” as my next crayon color and more or less decided upon the theme for this blog when Adams started singing,
“Drivin’ home this evening
I coulda sworn we had it all worked out.
You had this boy believin’
Way beyond the shadow of a doubt, yeah.”
Thank you, Bryan Adams, for unknowingly confirming my creative planning.
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