And I said to myself What a wonderful world

Foto.Feola.Friday for April 18, 2025

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I said to myself
What a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed days, the dark sacred nights
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

Editor’s Note: There was an error in the Next section of Tuesday’s Perfecting Equilibrium Digest. Building an AI Powered Virtual Newsroom Part II: Prompt Engineering Deep Dive is running April 27, not on Easter Sunday. We regret the error.

Foto.Feola.Friday

Sunday morning I was wandering through the bluebonnets with several cameras and the fam. It’s a pilgrimage we make every year. All Texans do.

Every state has its unique rituals celebrating its customs. Clambakes on the coasts. Corn mazes on the plains.

Bluebonnets are in many ways the essence of Texas, where everything seems to happen all at once. Take rain. We only get about 36 inches of rain, for example, which is less than the national average of 38 inches. Which wouldn’t be bad if we got that rain spread out over that year. Instead it all comes in a handfull of Wrath of God thunderstorms in the spring, 4 or 5 inches at time.

And those rains bring those bluebonnets. A handfull at first, and then patches. And then one day the rain stops and the sun comes out and acres and acres of Texas are covered with carpets of bluebonnets. And on that day Texas families gather and go out into the bluebonnet fields and take family portraits.

You’ll see three, four and five generations dressed up and posing for family photos. You’ll see babes in arms, and elderly with walkers. You’ll see some dressed casually, but most will be in their Sunday best.

What you won’t see are trampled bluebonnets. From bowlegged toddlers walking like cowboys to our oldest working their walkers, everyone carefully picks their way through the bluebonnets. Because everyone knows that the bluebonnets are like those thunderstorms: a few, and then a few patches, and then great carpets of the wildflowers covering the state!

And then, in a few more days, gone. Until next year.

That same day the news was filled with a crazy person setting fire to a governor’s mansion. But it’s important for all of our health to remember that things are news because they are unusual. One crazy firebug is news. Millions of Texans carefully taking family photos without crushing the bluebonnets are not news.

But I think it’s crucial to remember that those millions in the bluebonnets are the important story.

And so we picked our way to our usual spot. The bluebonnet patches tend to appear in the same places every year, and Texans tend to visit the same patches for photographs every year.

For generations.

And so as I picked my way through the flowers, placing my giant feet carefully, camera in one hand, a tiny hand holding the fingers of my other hand, a child was chanting in that sing-song toddler voice:

Don’t…STEP…on…blueBONNETS!

Don’t…STEP…on…blueBONNETS!

And I said to myself…

What a wonderful world.