April 17: Sun Breaking Through Clouds, "Silence of the Lambs," Better Mood

It's still freezing cold outside, right around 32 degrees.  However, the sun is breaking through the clouds, and the snow is starting to disappear.  It's not all gone, but when I went to my car after I was done teaching this afternoon, the asphalt around the car was dark with melt.

That pretty much describes my state of mind this afternoon.  After yesterday's 24-hour crap fest, I'm beginning to see some sunlight.  It always amazes me how disappointments seem to congregate like fish in schools.  They find a nice little cove and decide to hang out.  My family's cove was teeming with rejection minnows yesterday.  (I never even mentioned the car problems I had on my way home last night.)

This week, I'm screening Silence of the Lambs for my mythology classes.  You may wonder what Hannibal Lecter has to do with fairy tales.  Well, it's all there if you're looking for it.  Clarice starts the movie running through a deep, dark woods.  Think Little Red Riding Hood on her way to Grandma's house.  Clarice's last name is "Starling," a bird.  In many fairy tales, people are transformed into feathered creatures.  There's no better Big Bad Wolf than Anthony Hopkins, who communicates in riddles.  And Clarice has to rescue a damsel in distress by defeating a monster.

I bet you'll never watch that movie the same way again.

Anyway, I'm in a better mood this afternoon.  I'm getting to that point where I can say "it's an honor just to be nominated" without gritting my teeth.  Listen:

It's an honor just to be nominated.  It's an honor just to be nominated.  Year after year after year after year after...

Maybe Saint Marty needs to work on it a little more.

Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?