April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Thus sayeth T. S. Eliot in his poem The Waste Land. Eliot, like most poets, was a bit of a mope. Anyone who can make melancholy of springtime lilacs and roots beginning to grow anew might be a candidate for Prozac or lithium. Still, his words made me wonder and ponder whether he had a point.
A hasty search of references does not reveal significantly more or less notable events, births, or deaths during April. It is, however, the month the American Revolution began with the “shot heard ‘round the world” on April 19, in which the Civil War began (and ended), the sinking of the Titanic, and in our own time, the Oklahoma City bombing. It probably was the month in which the Crucifixion as well as the Passover & Resurrection occurred. On the more whimsical side, it begins by celebrating fools, and there is no other month which so validates the adage that Texas weather changes hourly. Back to melancholy, mid-month is when individuals account to the IRS for the income tax, and the more productive of us actually pay some.
It’s also the last full month of the school year
Happy April 2012 to all.
