Let the revels begin

Today is Groundhog Day. To some this might mean little, but for me it is my chosen holiday of the year. No fuss, no muss, no gifts, no guilt, no anxiety, no overindulgence, nobody picking up a shotgun and wasting his family just because he couldn’t cope with the pressure of the occasion and was filled with resentments over Groundhog Days past. For, all GHD offers is a slight element of hope and a forecast that spring is on the horizon.

Today is Groundhog Day. To some this might mean little, but for me it is the best holiday of the year. No fuss, no muss, no gifts, no guilt, no anxiety, no overindulgence, nobody picking up a shotgun and wasting his family just because he couldn’t cope with the pressure of the occasion and was filled with resentments over Groundhog Days past. For, all GHD offers is a slight element of hope and a forecast that spring is on the horizon.

I’m sorry, but the topic invariably put me in mind of one of the most underrated film tales of recent years, the inspired and even inspiring Groundhog Day.

Feel free to cue Sonny and Cher’s I Got You, Babe.

I’ll begin by stating that I am an unrepentant Bill Murray fan. Any world that offers a place to Bill, and yet still makes room for a Howie Mandel or Adam Sandler is beyond my comprehension, but I have no power over that.

Of course GHD is an allegory. It’s a morality play. It’s a study of sin and redemption much as is Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – and arguably just as effective.

Aside from being extremely funny, GHD looks at how we fall into traps of our own selfish devising and lose touch of how we might extricate ourselves. Murray is jaded and cynical Pittsburgh TV weatherman, Phil Connors. He and a TV crew have been sent to the little town of Punxutawney, PA for the annual awakening of the famed local rodent of the groundhog sort, Punxutawney Phil. Weatherman Phil is insulted and bored by the gig, but sees it as a possible opportunity to get into the pants of pretty assistant, Rita (Andie MacDowell).

What happens, as we know, is a miracle of sorts. As weatherguy Phil is forced to relive what he has already deemed the worst day of his life, he eventually begins to assess where he might have gone wrong all along the way and that the wretchedness of his existence is of his own devising, and nobody else’s. What he ultimately realizes is that he has been undergoing the best of all humbling experiences. What seemed like a curse is really a gift.

Ultimately Phil has his epiphany and becomes a new and decent man and, incidentally, does get into Rita’s aforementioned pants. See, guys, as Otis Redding once said, sometimes all it takes is to try a little tenderness.

For me, this is one of those extremely rare films that I’ve actually viewed a number of times since its release in 1993. In re-viewing I live a certain Groundhog Day of my own with it because I find I get a little more from it each time.

As for the real Groundhog Day, it’s primarily a silly thing. The myth is that if Punxutawney Phil or any other groundhog actually casts a shadow on Feb. 2(which is meant to send him scurrying back to his burrow), we are due for six more weeks of winter. Eek. What a terrible thing. But, wait a minute, here’s the flaw in this. Whether or not he sees his shadow, we’re still due for six more weeks of winter because that time span will take us up to around March 21, the Equinox and hence the beginning of spring.

Oh well. Regardless of that, it’s still my favorite low-stress and expectations day.

Looking outside this morning, thought, I perceive scant chance of the little rodent bugger seeing his shadow in these here parts today. Yay! In six weeks it will be full-blown spring. The groundhog never lies. Come to think of it, we don't actually groundhogs in this area. Would a rare Vancouver Island Marmot do?