William Wordsworth’s most famous work is “Ode: Intimations of Immortality From Reflections of Early Childhood.” It is one of my favorite poems, exploring the lost pleasures of childhood that Wordsworth believes are hints of the immortality we left behind:

It is not now as it hath been of yore;—

Turn wheresoe’er I may,

By night or day,

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

And again,

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home:

Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

Setting aside theological mysteries and controversies for another day, what has preoccupied me for that last month and a half has not been immortality, past or future, but increasing intimations of mortality:  My own,as I have experienced an unusual and thought provoking spell of genuine illness, something unusual for me; but also increasing intimations of mortality in the world in which we live, highlighted by the Gulf oil spill but buttressed by a host of other events. Read more »

If you live in the northeastern US, the title “weird weather” will not be a surprise.  Or if you lived in the cold south this past winter.  (See “Snow in 50 States – What’s going on?“).  Or if you lived in the UK, Europe, Australia…

This is a summary of current (ie. happening right now) weird weather around the world posted by Brad Johnson at Wonkroom blog yesterday:

NORTH AMERICA Weeks after some of the strongest snowstorms ever to hit the East Coast, another powerful winter storm drenches the Northeast, kills eight people, and knocks out power for hundreds of thousands. Record warmth in North Dakota and Minnesota threatens another year of catastrophic flooding.

SOUTH AMERICA Tropical Storm 90Q, also known as Anita, the “second known tropical cyclone to form in the cooler South Atlantic Ocean,” is circling off the Argentina coast. The first known South Atlantic tropical cyclone, Catarina, was in 2004. Read more »

It was big news last week that there was snow in 49 of 50 states.  Today we learn that, no, that’s not actually true.  There is now confirmation of snow in all 50 states at the same time:

Patrick Marsh received photos of snow on the ground in every state in just more than 24 hours, but it took him about 36 hours to realize it.

The Hawaii photos were lost in a deluge of incoming snow shots — which arrived at a rate of about one every two minutes. It took a second query from the photographer before he realized it, he said. Read more »