What an overrated season. It's so tentative. Winter sucks too, but at least it's got some balls.

Let me just throw in a word for my favorite season, and my favorite candidate for hope. Despite what T.S. Eliot says, I don't believe "April is the cruelest month" unless you happen to live in Tierra del Fuego. Here in the good old USA it's definitely a time to look forward to, and then a time to savor in its brief 30 day passage into an equally sweet May. Yeah, yeah -- winter tests your cajones, some say -- if you can survive that frozen hell, you can survive anything -- but -- survive to what purpose? What purpose could there be but to finally survive to experience "Spring! The sweet spring!" -- said to be, by a certain ancient poet: "The year's pleasant king." This rise from darkness back into light is always a thrill, even though I've experienced it 70 times now. Time for renewal. Time for Obama.

She hasn't lost yet. Let's wait and see who faces the Republicans in the fall, shall we?

Winter, rain and August

In NC we have 4 seasons: Ice, tornados, July and hurricanes.

What bastards?

They are all love children.

Of course Spring is quite lovely, especially when the crocuses peep and the daffodils bloom.

Yet, is it not obvious that October is the best seasoned month, during Indian Summer, with an enormous harvest moon looming overhead?

Yes, even better still if the moon is blue!

It always amazes me when the sensitive ones become insulated.

They choose it.

They buy into the insulation, they feel a little less, their antennae get tweaked down, then, presto-chango,

they are less than human.

When will we become responsible for our feelings?

When will we learn to transcend the slough?

Suffering is eliminated when desire takes leave.

No push. No pull. Just a quiet peaceful space to trammel the abyss. Surrender without judgement.

Ahhhhhh.

That feels much better.

May is the season when I wish I were 12 again. When I was 12, I used to love storms. We had plate glass windows all across the back of our house open onto a magnificent vista, and when the power went out, I would sit in front of them and watch the sky light up while my mother, older and wiser, huddled miserably next to the weather radio. I'm old now, and when the power goes out I make sure I know where the flashlight is, and I wonder if it's time to go hide in the downstairs bathroom.

I'm not sure we're all on the same page in May. There aren't a lot of tornadoes in Wisconsin. The other day, a few hours after a bunch of folks lost their houses in Oklahoma, the same storm came through here and lightning struck so close to my house that my niece's battery-powered Hannah Montana toys lit up and started playing music for a few seconds without anyone touching them, just because of the electricity in the air. Very Stephen King. Despite being so old, I was more fascinated than frightened.

Mr. Keillor,

If I had the money to work issues out with a therapist for 10 or so years, I would. But I don't. So I am happy to have the SSRIs (which insurance will pay for) so I can enjoy spring. Last year I had cancer, and was stuck in bed during the spring. One of the few good things about that was the opportunity to watch my garden revive itself after winter and explode into bloom. Even though I couldn't be outside much, and the advances the dandelions made, made me nearly crazy, really, there isn't anything better than spring.

Okay, Monday morning here in the ridges surrounding Penn State, we had 1-3 inches of wet sloppy snow. My own backyard's lilacs, young vegetable garden and flowering bushes were drooping under the weight of heavy wet snow. Yesterday, it was 70 and sunny. Spring's way of just saying "Kidding! That snow was a great practical joke, huh?"

I completely agree with Mr. Keillor on the singing of the Anthem in G. I saw this done on television, and it sounded great.

Yes. May showers bring Aril flowers. I just wanted to mention.

I quoted you last eve to a small group of morel egg omelette eaters.

"Do good work."

I enjoy how you do suggest to shower with neighbors in the May rain.

I too hate the pop-star anthems. I miss the country of my youth that didn't mind singing together. Last weekend at a local event they played a recording of some pop-star wailing away. An audience full of kids who would have sung lustily, but no. We're too proud now to sing. Too embarrassed that we don't all have recording contracts or something. Too used to singing into a machine that makes us sound larger than life. How can I sing into the air? Where's the microphone?

The Anthem was supposed to be a moment of affirmation of our citizenship. Now it's just part of the entertainment.

I knew there was something different about Barack Obama but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Of course! He's skinny and the other guys are jowly! Why didn't I see it before?

Of course, they're all the same where it really matters (and I don't want to put my finger on it).

Hillary Clinton is the one that's truly different. Not one of the guys, if you get my drift.

If you've seen one testicle, you've seen them all.

And

"Here we are in a green paradise, stomachs churning, eyeballs flickering, sensing dark conspiracies, feeling alienated from the people around us who feel similarly alienated from us."

is a great line. Says alot about the 'Merican condition, which G.K. strives to encapturate.

Sing your Song and don't let the Bastards get you down ????? Is that not what JFK--RFK--MLK--MALCOLM X--MEDGAR EVERS--etc. etc. etc. were doing.The reward they received for singing their songs is what turned us into Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitor JUNKIES !!! But it is Springtime and we have a new singer in Sen. Obama--- Perhaps He can help us KICK THE HABIT ! We can still hope--CAN'T WE ????? ---Zoloft and Coffee on a fine Spring Morn' to all--- !!! Tommie27