Scene This Week In…

My neighbor was born and raised in Egypt. I’m not sure when exactly he emigrated to the United States but he still maintains close ties to the land of his birth. We watched their house when he took whole family went back to Egypt for a winter vacation this past December.

“We missed all the excitement by two weeks,” he told me. 

And he was excited. On February 11^th he hung the Egyptian flag over his garage in celebration of the political upheaval that some have called the Facebook revolution. He told me that this was a very proud moment for all Egyptians. He found it difficult to adequately express how he felt but suggested that February 11^th will henceforth become as meaningful to Egyptians as the 4^th of July is to Americans.

It reminded me of how fortunate we are to live in such a diverse county.

At the risk of eating my words with a topping of grit encrusted snow, I think the worst of winter is now behind us. To be sure, March can be a fickle month as far as weather goes. I can recall St. Patrick's Day celebrations where it was warm enough to wear shorts and others that required snow gear. I’m hoping that this year will trend more towards the former than the latter.

I choose this picture of a snow mound in the parking lot of Wal-Mart in Columbia because it captures how I feel about snow at this point in winter. As much as I enjoy the quiet beauty of a fresh fallen snow in November by now I am so done with the cold white stuff.