March is almost here. It is the time of year when winter has almost passed out of the picture and summer has yet to make an appearance. If we had supernatural hearing, we could probably hear creaks and groans as the earth begins to melt in the warm rays of the spring sun.

As it is, we will have to settle for signs such as birds singing, mild mornings that hint of the warmth to come, daffodils peeping from the soil, and air around us suddenly taking on a tinge of light green as trees start to unfurl from their winter naps. There is an old adage that says if March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb. Supposedly the opposite is also true. The beginning and ending of the month isn’t nearly as important as the middle. Snow can fly one minute with the sunning shining brightly in the next minute. One day will be warm, but the next day may be freezing. The winds in March are famously unpredictable.

The fickle winds can’t remember if it is winter or spring. Sometimes they blow softly bringing a warm breeze, and sometimes they blow as though their very life depends on trying to blow things off the face of the earth. We have to hold on to our hats or run to keep our hairdo from taking an entirely different look from the one we wanted. Lewis Grizzard said spring is the time when earth awakens and called these March winds “the morning yawn.”

Even early writers recognized March’s changeability. There is one spot at our house where the afternoon sun comes through the front window, and it is so warm. My husband and I “fight” over who gets to sit there.

Yesterday, I got there first, and as I sat in the sun, I thought about the words of Charles Dickens when he wrote, “It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” For a short time, I had a little preview of summer. Then the sun went behind the mountain, and it was cold again.

• As a state, we have something to be thankful for this spring. One news report last week reported all the states in the United States are in the red except five of them. West Virginia was one of the five.

It was really good to see that black outline in the middle of all the red on that map. I am very proud of whoever made this happen.

• I still think it would be a better idea to divide up all the bail out money among the citizens instead of giving it to corporations or to states.

• I realize that people need help today, but what kind of message is being sent to the 92 per cent of home owners who are caught up on their mortgages? I am sure it has really been a struggle for them, too.

• There is something wrong with the picture of an unmarried mother with six children who gets “fertilized” with eight more babies just because she loves kids and wants lots of them to make up for her solitary childhood. To me, this is the height of expedience which means “taking advantage of opportunities without regard for the consequences for others.” The woman didn’t consider her mother who now has to help her with the fourteen children. She didn’t consider her other children. She didn’t consider the public who is going to foot the bill for all fourteen children. Where does responsibility begin?

Not only is she not married, she doesn’t even have a job and receives public assistance in the form of food stamps for her six children ages 2 through 7 and disability checks for three of them. Where did she get the money for the procedure? If I’m not mistaken, it is not cheap.

Now the news tells us that she and her children have moved back in with her mother whose house is ten months behind in payments and is in danger of being taken away from them.

• It was late, and I was skimming the Internet news sources to see if there were anything interesting to read about when a title caught my eye and I clicked over to the web site. I was glad I did.

It was a story about two high school teams playing a ballgame in Illinois. One of the teams was from DeKalb High School, and the other was from Milwaukee Madison High School. The two schools are over two hours away from each other, but one act of human kindness binds them more than any competitive spirit can.

We will focus on one player on each team: Johntel Franklin from Milwaukee and Darius McNeal from DeKalb.

The game started an hour late because Johntel’s teammates were with him at a local hospital where his mother had just died after a five year fight with cervical cancer. She had begun to hemorrhage that morning while Johntel was taking his ACT test.

Johntel protested when his coach suggested canceling the game that night. Instead, about half way through the game he showed up at the gym and asked the coach if he could play.

This set up the biggest play of the game. If Johntel played, his team would receive a technical foul because he wasn’t listed on the original roster. The referees insisted the technical be called even though the team from DeKalb tried to refuse it.

Darius McNeal is the best foul shooter on the DeKalb team and his statistics are excellent. It was a lot to ask him to miss the shots, but all his coach had to say to him was, “You know you are going to miss them, don’t you?” Later, McNeal was quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as saying, “It was the right thing to do.”

Coach Rohlman from DeKalb said, “This is something our kids will hold for a lifetime. They may not remember our record 20 years from now, but they’ll remember what happened in that gym that night.”

Isn’t that what high school sports are all about: building character and sportsmanship?

The story between the two Milwaukee schools is what I call a “springtime story.” It lifts up the spirit and makes a warm place in one’s heart. Reading it was a little bit like sitting in a sunshine beam coming through the window.