February 28, 2026

Sometimes it’s hard to see where you’re going.

Many times this is literally true.  After working a 14-hour shift this past Sunday, the local train dropped me off at 86th Street, and as soon as I turned the Amsterdam corner to head towards my apartment on W87th a prolonged gust of wind threw what seemed like unceasing pellets of snow against my face, forcing my eyes shut and staggering my gate forward.  The sidewalk was invisible under at least a foot of snow, which meant I had been a bit unsteady already.  Being blindly blown into the street suddenly seemed like a distinct possibility.

And for some reason, I found myself laughing…

For one, I was confident this unusual moment was bound to end, which of course it did.  And there was that other part of me capable of marveling at how I was now experiencing an event that had somehow eluded me up till this point.  I’d broken a collarbone skiing (well - falling down!), totaled a car on a misguided winter’s storm road trip from Boston to New York, shoveled roof tops under precarious situations in my hometown of Burlington, Vermont and had pathetic early attempts to ice skate captured for posterity in childhood movies.  But I’d yet to be flung face-first into a pile of freshly fallen snow simply because the wind took that exact moment to wreak havoc on my forward progress.

Luckily, I emerged unscathed.

NYC has just experienced a once-in-a-generation snowfall, only a month after the city had been held hostage by a deep-freeze for the ages.  Each resident of this city has endured this turmoil together.

And now, in many ways, it’s easy to see where we’re going.

We’re shoveling our way out.  The warm weather is already turning things around.  Spring and better times are coming.  Hope in the fresh air feels contagious.

But in other ways…

Will ICE become a major problem in this city, following Minneapolis, Chicago and a host of others?  Will journalists continued to be arrested for simply doing their jobs?  Will our Department of Justice continue to exist to serve only one man?  Is our democracy truly nearing an end?

Has war become our new national pastime?

We can’t at this moment know the answers to these questions but they are bound to arrive.  In the meantime, we can’t give up hope entirely simply because positivity is so hard to see and feel right now.

Keeping our eyes open will be essential.

Our minds as well.

In any case, this particular winter is almost over.  Let’s notice and enjoy the beautiful moments before they slip away.