Sleighbells Ring , Are You Listening ?

This morning I arose earlier than is my usual wont , gazed out the patio windows and was awed by what I saw. Once again Mother Nature was retouching Her self-portrait and I was fortunate enough to have a front seat ..... there in the morning silence.......watching the Artist wield Her brush. A passage from Robert Service's " The Shooting of Dan Mc Grew" came to mind , " Were you ever out in the Great Alone when the moon was awful clear , and the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear ?" Yes ,it was that kind of morning ! A positively homespun , philosophical beginning to a great day !!

For an instant the scenario before me sent my brain  into idling mode and images of Christmas cards of yore flickered through my mind  with slogans such as the once lofty but nowadays fast-fading wish of peace to all mankind  ......... horse - drawn sleighs ploughing though the snow to midnight services at the village church .... bells a chiming and a tolling...... folks all bundled up in their winter finery , whiffs of smoke curling upwards from chimneys on snow-clad rooftops ,etc  Just enough to give a guy that "warm fuzzy feeling"of well-being , hope and optimism.

Just then ....... out of nowhere........ Li'l Athol popped up......sitting there on my left shoulder whispering in my ear that well - known Seinfeldian existential question , "War , what is it good for ?" ...... adding somewhat philosophically that  maybe more wars would bring more solutions to mankind's woes and injustices. I hesitated for a moment ...... then  counterstruck  with my own query , " Snow , what is it good for ? "The impish look  on his face gave way to bewilderment so I explained that in recent history snow had "cooled down" the fiendish endeavours of two raving / conquering maniacs ( Napoleon and Hitler ) in their attempts at world domination.......... adding that maybe we could find a way to somehow hasten the return of another Ice Age so as to torpedo plans by any other warm-blooded fanatics hell-bent on taking over our majestic orb and its inhabitants.