Heavenly Skies

It seems a bit presumptuous to compare my poor efforts to the work of Michaelangelo, but the sky this morning did  remind me of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (minus the hand of man yearning upwards toward the downstretched hand of God). There were even beautiful shafts of light stretching down through the dark clouds toward the vineyards, but I wasn't able to capture them.

Today is a pseudo-holiday. It, used to be a real one,  honoring Abraham Lincoln's birthday on February 12th.  George Washington's birthday was a second holiday on February 22nd. At some point they were moved to Mondays in order to give people a three day weekend. Later they were combined into one Monday called "President's Day" . Some places have dropped the presidents altogether in favor of "Spring Break". A once important part of our history has now been reduced to a matter of wondering whether we need to put money in the parking meters. 

We Americans have a gift  for trivializing some things while simultaneously blowing others out of all proportion. Another case in point was an article in the paper this morning pointing out that while once prominent people were celebrities for life, the advent of social media has eliminated lasting fame in favor of "nano" celebrities…people whose acts or images go viral in a matter of seconds on You Tube and are just as quickly forgotten.