Four quick views of Groundhog Day
1. That Bill Murray movie. A cult classic, somewhat like Joe Versus the Volcano.
2. A silly superstition invented in Europe. Europe!
3. Folkways are the best ways. Punxsutawny, PA is situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes such that the early February cloud cover there can predict the gulf stream's patterns over the next 6 weeks.
4. Deconstruction. If we begin from the notion that a shadow represents mortality, then seeing a shadow is tantamount to recognizing one's own mortality. Only in accepting our coming death can we truly seize the joy of life. Hence, spring.
Special bonus link: Haruki Murakami's novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, features a subplot set in a town where people's shadows are literally cut off and banished. A very strange and wonderful novel, outwardly random-strange but underneath it all, creepy-strange.
Special bonus link 2: Punxsutawny Phil has seen his shadow.