And a few drivebys

To continue the last post’s ruminations I’ll mention that my yard gets noticed regularly each winter that I can put a snow sculpture together. Sometimes the vagaries of weather only leave me with a couple days of snow art. This year, for the first time in a few years, I’ve lucked into a sculpture that has lasted two weeks because of short cold days.

More than any other sculpture I felt compelled to make this one because of current events. Last year was so warm I was never able to freeze water in the ice bucket candle holders I bought. That was no problem this year and I’ve been able to set them out below my snow sculpture.

Twenty years ago a traffic engineer told me that over 20,000 cars were driving up and down my Avenue each day. Today I’d guess twice that many pairs of eyes go past. This means a lot more folks see my sculptures than read my scribblings. This year’s sculpture has touched a cord with people as never before.

Last night as I lit the 10 candles for the ice luminaries a school bus paused below us with the change of lights. Suddenly windows flew down and ten year old were giving me thumbs up and telling my work was awesome. It made me feel glad even though I’m several days past shedding tears. These stories, like my sculptures, have a short life span.

A couple days ago I read that a survey of reporters listed Sandy Hook as the top story of 2012. We all have a habit of ranking recent events all out of proportion to their real significance. In years to come Sandy Hook will fade in our memories and be eclipsed by Obama’s reelection following a two-year campaign. At least it will hold its primacy in the history books. Still, I’ll remember my latest sculpture with far more fondness than the much larger one I made of Obama two years ago. The heart has its own ranking system.

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