Spring's First Green

Winter in Cleveland sucks. Long, cold, and worst of all rarely any sun. By February everything feels as if covered in an inescapable pall of gray. March follows though, the middle of the month giving us a goal in St. Patrick’s day, where we are, once again, assured of finally seeing some color in our world. The multitudinous shades of green appear everywhere, but nowhere as pervasively as at the parade downtown. As parades go it is nothing particularly extraordinary. The usual mix of politicians and promoters, media, and representative Irish group members. It somehow, however, feels like more than the sum of its parts. Catholic school kids play hooky, offices empty, everyone shows up, particularly if miraculously the sun is out and the day is warm. For a day we can all agree that green is good, winter should leave now, and we should bid it farewell with plenty of beer.