Be Grateful: It Could be Worse

Long ago, in the flat West Texas desert near the New Mexican border,  I was stuck in a rather frustrating in situation with a friend.  In a moment of calmness, he said:  "Always remember this when things are bad:  It could be worse."

The words of my friend, Nik, had a certain weight to them.  He was born in Yugoslavia in an ethnically mixed house.  He and his family relocated to Liberia - once a peaceful country - when Nik was young.  He then came to the US where he and I became classmates.  Nik's amazing power was being able to stay optimistic despite the anything that was happening in the current situation.  I suppose that this is a necessary skill when your parents, one a Serb and the other a Croat, find themselves in opposing sides of a civil war that ends up destroying the country you were born into. And, as it turns out, another civil war destroys the beautiful country of your youth.

Now, let's talk about the weather.  Last year, on this day, I complained about Russia's long winter.  Soon after my complaint, the sun came out, green shoots popped out, and spring came roaring in.  This year, the spring is delayed by just a bit more (by Moscow standards).  The weather forecast tells the story (left forecast is in Fahrenheit, right in Celsius).

Yup, snow is in the forecast for another week.  As Nik said, "it could be worse."  Let's be grateful that it is not.