We triumph again in the end

Okay Internet,

Here is your challenge.

In my exhaustive writing here in this space I am prone to wild moments of hyper confidence that falls just shy of megalomania, theoretically. I write something, somewhere here among the vast thousands of things I have written, and I am overcome. As eleven people read it I say:

This is the greatest thing written today on the whole of the endless Internet!

I mean, I don't say it aloud, I say it in writing. I say it as a fait accompli and as an open argument. 

There are no takers.

"But what?" You maybe wonder. "What was the greatest thing written on the whole Internet?"

It was about Snow Glorys, so, not really the Internet's thing, you know... flowers. And it was about writing. And it was about greatness and beauty. It was about MORE THINGS THAN YOU CAN FIT IN ALL THE BILLIONS OF CLICKBAIT HEADLINES THAT HAVE EVER REARED THEIR SIREN'S HEADS OUT OF THE OCEAN OF THE INTERNET!

And if you are a regular here maybe you think:

"This again."

Or, "He's playing the fool."

Or maybe you think something more wonderful than I can imagine. 

Oh you sometimes do!

And if you're new here you maybe think:

"Where on earth is this going?"

Ah. 

Nowhere that will make you as happy as it should.

The Internet is easy, art is hard.

We'll come back to that.

So fool, megalomaniac, trickster, dealer in the unverifiable, however you want to contextualize it, I ask for this:

Something better than what I wrote.

Something better than what I wrote that day, on, er, April 16, 2020.

Just one thing.

Anything, that day. Because I would like to read it.

It's not a contest.

Something, anything better than a short piece I wrote about Snow Glories and me.

Me me me me me.

Me.

I went for a walk today. 

A little while ago Spring came to where I live. And then, as it often does in Minnesota in April, it retreated. It was cold and the snow that had fallen less than a day after it was 65 degrees out was still taking its time to melt. I looked at the trees, which are pretty. I thought about the houses and about Europe. I avoided the people, because there is a pandemic and I avoid them all the time anyway. And I wondered about a lot of things. But not Snow Glories. I didn't see any Snow Glories because I wasn't looking.

And then all of a sudden my attention turned and I did see Snow Glories. There were Snow Glories on the lawns and fields. There were Snow Glories in the front yards of lovely stone and brick 100 year old homes. There were Snow Glories quietly sprawling under a wooden table that, curiously, a dog was sleeping on. The dog was sleeping on a table!

Snow Glories are little flowers. They were the flowers under the table with the sleeping dog. 

These were all blue violet and a little soggy from the melting snow and the cold. They weren't dramatic, and one only noticed them if one looked, lost as they could be in the grass and mud and snow. If you picked them you would need a tiny vase to display them, on your tiny table, in a tiny window, in your tiny house.

But here's the thing:

They were the prettiest flowers growing in all of Minnesota!

The greatest flower in all of Minnesota on this day of the pandemic in 2020, Snow Glorys!

They were small and brave and cold and colorful and,

well,

They were, fairly speaking, the only flowers growing in all of Minnesota!

It is very early for flowers here. The Snow Glories come first.

But didn't you know?

BEST

and

ONLY

are the same thing.

Best and only are the same thing. 

And so

The Internet is hard and art is easy,

And every flower wins every contest.