It's Groundhog Day -- Again!

GREETINGS FROM GOBBLER’S KNOB

THINK IT’LL BE AN EARLY SPRING?

In Groundhog Day -- the popular 1993 movie -- Phil Connors (Bill Murray’s weatherman character) declares:

“This is pitiful. A thousand people freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat. What a hype. Groundhog Day used to mean something in this town. They used to pull the hog out, and they used to eat it. You're hypocrites, all of you!”

It’s meant to be funny, of course. If case you haven’t seen the movie, here’s a quick plot summary:

An egotistical weather man for a local Pittsburg station is sent, for the fourth year, to Punxsutawney, PA to cover the Groundhog Day weather forecasting "rat." He makes no effort to hide his annoyance and frustration. Trapped in town overnight by bad weather, when he wakes the “following” day, he discovers that it's Groundhog Day -- again.

And again.

And again.

First he uses this to his advantage, then comes to the realization he’s doomed to spend the rest of eternity in the same place, seeing the same people do the same thing every day. Only he can initiate change and only he knows and recalls the information gained in each repetition. So --

• At first he takes purely self-serving advantage of his situation and knowledge.

• Then he dreads even this advantaged life and tries to prevent the “next” day from occurring to him.

• Finally he opens his heart, seeks a goal for his repeated existence and begins a path of daily self-improvement that he hopes will enable him to act as a benefactor for others.  

• Eventually, Connors/Murray enhances his own human understanding which, in return, makes him an appreciated and beloved man in the town.

The cycle of repetition is finally broken when he’s able to profess true love to the woman he’s been unsuccessfully attempting to seduce.

Awww. If you’ve seen the movie -- and many, many have – you know it exhibits both an acidic humorous take on life and a sanguine sentimentality.

According to director Harold Ramis, most of the times when he tried to explain a scene to Bill Murray, Murray would interrupt and ask, "Just tell me - good Phil or bad Phil?"

So what’s the point? On one of the repeating days Phil passes a man in the hallway of the place where he begins each of his days and has this exchange:

Man in Hallway: Think it'll be an early spring?

Phil: Winter, slumbering in the open air, wears on its smiling face a dream... of spring. Ciao.

Man in Hallway: Ciao.

Phil’s “observation” is a quote, not attributed, from Work Without Hope a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The stanza (without the flippant “Ciao”) continues:

And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing,

Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.

That poetically sums up Phil’s situation. And, if you knew the poems’ conclusion, also hints at the movies’ conclusion.

Catalyst Connection Takeaway:  Coleridge ends his poem with this observation:

And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?

Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve,

And hope without an object cannot live.

Today Punxsutawney Phil (and Northern New Jersey’s own Essex Ed) did not see their shadows, foreshadowing an early Spring.

[February 3 Correction: According to today's local paper Ed DID see his shadow although his "cousin" in nearby Staten Island, NY did not.  (Because I, roughly 15 miles away from Ed's Essex County home did not see my shadow, I assumed he did not.) I suspect that many in winter-weary NJ may now agree with the "rat" designation.]

Whether (weather) this is or is not so, I don’t think “the rat” or we can reliably expect. But, at this nearly midpoint between the darkest and brightest days of the year, we can and should be guided by the Groundhog Day movie and its Coleridge reference.

Only you can initiate change. Work toward your objectives filled with hope.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S.  Movie Music Trivia Fun Facts: Each of Weatherman Phil’s repeated days begins at 6:00 AM with the clock radio blaring Sonny and Cher’s “I’ve Got You, Babe.” On the morning of the “breakthrough” day that won’t be a repeat, when the alarm goes off, the song begins in a different place. The movie’s closing song is "Almost Like Being in Love" from Brigadoon, a musical which also dealt with a village trapped in time.

GEOFF STECK leads Alexander Publishing & Marketing, a company he formed in 1986. The core AP&M mission: To create and publish leadership, sales mastery, self-improvement and workplace skill-building resources and tools. The focus: Areas such as business communication, staff support, customer care and frontline management. Geoff also puts his corporate and entrepreneurial experience, independent perspective, and skills as a catalyst to work for other firms (ranging from multinational corporations to more modest operations), not-for-profits, and individuals who have conceived or developed programs or initiatives but are frustrated in getting them implemented.