snowing, again

BELIZE: [....] Oh cheer up Louis. Look at that heavy sky out there.

LOUIS: Purple.

BELIZE: Purple? Boy, what kind of homosexual are you, anyway? That's not purple, Mary, that color up there is (Very grand) mauve. All day it's felt like Thanksgiving. Soon, this...ruination will be blanketed white. You can smell it--can you smell it?

LOUIS: Smell what?

BELIZE: Softness, compliance, forgiveness, grace.

LOUIS: No...

BELIZE: I can't help you learn that. I can't help you, Louis.
You're not my business. (He exits)

Tony Kushner, Angels in America Part One: Millenium Approaches, Act III, Scene II.

well, it is snowing again today, but the flakes are fluffy and they sort of look like delicate, white butterflies or fairies flying around in some suspended animation. there is a little bit of wind but considering that it is not below 10 degrees with a windchill of -25 to -30 below zero, i am not complaining. I am re-reading tony kushner's two part play angels in america because i will be teaching it after spring break. i really like the image that the character belize uses in describing snow...soft, compliant, filled with grace and forgiveness. it falls upon the ruination of tragedy and memories...it has a static song. i love listening to the sound of snow falling. you have to be in a place that is almost entirely free of noise...even traffic rumble. if you are quiet...and i mean the type of quietness that lets you listen to gentle pumping of your heart you can hear the snow as it falls to the ground. it sounds like gentle static...like the white noise on a radio that is turned down really, really low. to hear this music you have to become contemplative...to stop moving, to control your breath. it's very calming for me, this snowy music....it coats everything in a softness that is crisp and gentle. it is like forgiveness or grace or love...softly falling whether we want it to or not. it hides tragedy but does not get rid of it...it softly changes the landscape...let's us create new meaning out of old ruins; a new territory in the same place.