Mortality in the Air?

It is spring, tra-la. The air warms, the sun has moxie, the sap rises, life returns in force, and yet death is in the air, on the news, all around. A woman on life support hangs in the balance of national conservative politics and those who believe the matter is a personal, family affair. An important southern Senator passes away without much notice, eclipsed by the drama of a federal court intervening in the outcome. The "tough man who made a tender chicken" died yesterday. Most of all, Pope John Paul lies near death Rome's Vatican. Were he to linger in a coma, sustained by all manner of medical, cardio-pulmonary aids, the Catholic church would be paralyzed, in a coma until he dies. This would be the same predicament the Florida woman remained in for fifteen years. It does not seem likely that he will be in such a state. A Cardinal will hit him on the head three times with a silver hammer when he dies. I guess this must come from the days when they worried about burying a man alive? Predictably, the weather is wet and cold, a raw weekend forecast for New England. What a shame for all creatures that have made it through the harshness and deprivations of the long winter season not to survive the summer cycle of the new, full year.