Objectivity and impartiality are essential to the leadership position I am privileged to hold. Lately, however, I have been challenged to maintain them as day after day, week after week, I regard with dismay the relentless bleakness that confronts great swaths of our country, the persistent chill that limits genuine human connection, and the acquiescence of my fellow citizens to conditions unilaterally declared by, let’s just call him what he is, a petty tyrant—an indulged nuisance—a carnival act—by whose small worldview and capricious edicts, it would seem, we must now all be oppressed. Naturally I am speaking of Punxsutawney Phil.
I am under no illusion, of course, that Phil’s most zealous adherents, his “phaithphil phollowers,” will ever be persuaded to oppose him. Look no further than the self-avowed Inner Circle who pretend to be fluent (or is it “phluent”?) in “Groundhogese.” (With their top hats and tuxedos, you’d think William McKinley was still the president!) As far as these loyalists are concerned, if the forecast is uncertain, Phil alone can fix it. “Is that a gray sky?” he asked not long ago. “Only I know. You can’t trust A.I.” Their unquestioning acceptance of his vision would be laughable were it not so dangerous—for how do they respond when Phil is wrong, as history has proved him to be time and again? They blame the translator, who readily retracts his first interpretation—who explains, perhaps, that he was focused too much on the style and too little on the substance of the Groundhogese—and thus perpetuates the facade of Phil’s “inphallibility” while the furless among us shiver through a seemingly endless winter.
As much as it pains me to acknowledge it, though, groundhogs are purported to have excellent vision, and support for Phil does extend well beyond the ranks of the “phaithful.” Even his most ardent detractors cannot deny his unique and broad appeal in the American consciousness. Majority popular support for his reinstallment at Gobbler’s Knob from the warmer environs of the Punxsutawney Library is a recent case in point—and yet I cannot help but wonder: have we forgotten the damage that groundhogs can do to structural foundations, fencing, roots, and gardens absent sensible checks on their actions? “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” We might soon find out! Just don’t expect the Groundhog Club to impose any constraints, beholden as they are to Phil’s influence. Even Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has gone so far as to declare Phil the Official State Meteorologist. Does this toothy squirrel’s influence know no bounds? Why not just start calling him Phil of Pennsylvania? Or Phil of America?
I’m sorry for “getting zoological” here. I know you have come to expect appropriate rational detachment in my community letters, not to mention graphs no one asked for, words no one uses, and historical figures no one remembers. If I have disappointed your expectations this week, I apologize. My parents always told me that it’s rude to talk about money, religion, and rodents, and I don’t want to sound unhinged—like I’m about to put a “Phrustrate!” sticker on my bumper or a “Facts not phacts!” sign in the yard. Surely there are more constructive means of self-expression.
The simple truth is that, perhaps like you, I am weary after so many snow days at MICDS and so much cold and gray weather in the lives of our students and community; but here is another simple truth: Punxsutawney Phil does not control the climate, and it is productive neither to blame nor to credit him disproportionately for vast and complex phenomena in our world. Rather, our focus should train on the phenomena themselves and how best to understand and respond to them—not a shadow or its absence, but the weather itself—especially in support of the education and growth of the children and adolescents we serve. After all, no matter the winter, spring is ever in the air at MICDS. We move toward it together with hope unceasing.
Always reason, always compassion, always courage. My best wishes to you and your families for a happy weekend ahead.
Jay Rainey
Head of School
This week’s addition to the “Refrains for Rams” playlist: I Got You Babe by Sonny & Cher (Apple Music / Spotify)