A well-seasoned speech

I considered blogging about Gov. Daniels' State of the State address, but it was pretty standard fare. The governor says we have tough times ahead, but we're better prepared than most, so let's stick together and tough it out. Well, you know. Rah, rah, rah.

But I did find his second inaugural address sort of interesting. He started out with a cute figure of speech: "As a matter of both good manners and necessity, second helpings should be smaller than first portions. Likewise with second pronouncements on accepting duty in the public's employ." But then he got bogged down in a tired analogy:

But we must believe, and resolve to see, that these present troubles are but a frost in April, a brief chill before the full flowering of the greener Indiana to come.

And he was just getting, well, warmed up. He talked about the "cold" realities of a "wintry" world economy not being able to obscure the "signs of spring" in our state, because we have the "plantings" of future prosperity. We have a "blossoming" culture of enterprise that will regenerate "new sprouts" faster than the trusted old branches "decay and fall away."

(Pause to catch breath and dredge up more cliches. Fade out on the tree, zoom in on the garden.)

But early spring is "a tentative time," and winter never "looses its grip" without a struggle, so our "new garden" will need "constant tending." We have a deep reverence for our "ripe" traditions in Indiana, but still we have chosen the "green path" of change. However, "spring's first flowers" are always at risk, since the "frosts of fear" can nip the most "promising and beautiful of buds." If we emerge from our "winter's sleep" only to see the "sahdows of doubt" and retreat from them, the "winter will return," all the more "frigid for the fragile hopes it cuts short." But, "unlike the groundhog of fable," we have the outcome in our power. (I SWEAR to you, I DID NOT make that part up.) We can face forward "into the sun" and "summon the springtime."

(Hey, where you going? We're not done yet, no siree.)

Do not retreat to the bleak confines of your "hibernation caves." It's "not easy being green," but each new creative action will add "spring" to our steps. Let's strive to finish our work so we leave a "brighter, greener Indiana" to those who follow us.

Boy, I'm sure glad he decided to keep it short, because that is one hell of a lot of weather there.

As I look out my office window, I notice that the snow of oppression is piling up on my car of freedom. I suppose I could just hang around here until the spring of liberation arrives. But I want to get home through Fort Wayne's streets of opportunity to my front porch of hope for the future, I suppose I'd better get out my scraper of promise and scrape away that ice of fear from the windshield of vision.