When I landed in Buenos Aires exactly a year ago today, I couldn't quite believe that I was really about to spend almost 5 whole months away from Fordham. Today, I can't quite believe that the photo above was taken only a few months ago, soon after I arrived on campus for my penultimate semester. Well, time flies; it both feels like everything happened all at once and lifetimes apart. I suppose that's life.
It was quite a pleasant surprise this past Sunday to hear that our rodent meteorologists proclaimed that we'll have an early spring. Part of me is a tiny bit disappointed, since I haven't had a snow day since 2018. As I was reflecting a little while ago, the wait through winter to get to the beginning of spring can be a little depressing. It's part of human nature to be excited about spring. It's hardly necessary to say how widespread and how easy it is to be depressed about the presidential election in less than a year; after all, even if you do support the president, you have to admit that it's a terrible thing to have the country be so divided. I suppose it is indeed a heartening sign of unity to have so many Americans, regardless of political division, take part in the common activity of watching the Super Bowl (and the halftime show); after all, this indicates cultural unity. On the other hand, of course, you could say that it's pathetic when something like the Super Bowl (which, one could argue, is nothing but an entertainment spectacle) becomes a symbol of national unity.
In one of my favorite stories by Jorge Luis Borges, "El simulacro", Argentina's first Peronist era is called "an unreal time." It's easy to call the current era in this country an unreal time. Argentina hasn't exactly gotten through its long winter to a final burst of spring yet, and it might be foolhardy to suppose that the problems in our own country will be completely solved any time very soon. At any rate, the sure coming of spring (and the idea of it coming soon) is enough to instill at least some measure of certain hope.