Maybe in a perfect world

I'm going to go out on a globally warmed, climatically changed limb here and presume that the Tax Day snowfall on April 15 will be the final such event of this winter of my discontent.

If it snows again before Christmas, I am going to take one of my Arturo Fuente cigars, a lighter, a bottle of dark rum and a tall glass and, much like General Lee at Appomattox, announce my surrender to Mother Nature.

This past winter has been rough – in more ways than one. After 70-plus temperatures on Saturday at Great American Ball Park, I thought that Old Lady Nature finally released us from her death grip. Maybe in a perfect world.

In fact, had it not been for one of my favorite singers and songwriters, Michael McCloud of Key West, Fla., I may not have gotten through the Winter That Will Not End with whatever is left of my sanity.

Michael McCloud is a 60-something American folk singer whose real name is Michael Snyder. (See http://michaelmccloudmusic.com.) He used to perform (and perhaps still does) on an almost-daily basis at the popular Schooner Wharf Bar in Key West.

I used to listen to McCloud's music online from the Conch Republic Radio station (www.conchradio.com). After that website was discontinued, I'd listen to McCloud through the many You Tube videos of his music and stories live from the Schooner Wharf Bar.

Toward the end of this supposedly past winter, I received my first Michael McCloud CD (I'm listening to it now, thanks, Pam).

"Maybe in a Perfect World" includes some 21 songs. You'll most likely recognize many of them. The CD begins with the Jimmie Cox (whose family did not own a department store in Kentucky, to the best of my knowledge) classic: "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out."

Among the other songs are: "Ain't Misbehavin," "You Don't Know Me," "The Dock of the Bay," "It Was A Very Good Year," "Over the Rainbow," and McCloud's own "Maybe in a Perfect World."

Two of McCloud's signature songs are "The Dutchman" and his acoustic rendition of "Chasin' the Wind." The next time you feel like you've had your fill of the Midwest winter, go online and look up Michael McCloud from the Schooner Wharf Bar. Rum and cigars optional, of course…

Thank you for your music – and your service, Mr. Snyder.

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• For all of you who've asked, yes, I've sent your respective well-wishes to Angie Matticks. She thanks you. Lord willing and the creeks don't rise, she'll be back at full strength soon. Meanwhile, Lisa, Caitlin and Mickey are keeping up with everything. And we appreciate your patience when the absent-minded publisher forgets to check his email from time to time...

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• My Feb. 10, 2014 issue of National Review has a splendid book review by Charles C.W. Cooke on Daniel Hannan's "Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World." (Note to family: I need to read this book.)

Mr. Hannan, Cooke explains, is a British member of the European Parliament.

Cooke begins his column with this gem from George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four:" "He who controls the past controls the future." He then added that it was Aldous Huxley who "more presciently sketched out the threat to the free."

In Huxley's estimation, Cooke writes, "the primary hazard wasn't so much the suppression of truth as it was apathy, nonsense and disconnection from tradition."

I agree.

After all, the suppression of truth by big government can be overcome. But only if we are not apathetic or nonsensical or disconnected.

Cooke continues, quoting the author: "It takes a major effort of will to imagine how revolutionary are ideas such as individual rights, private property, and personal liberty – expressed in English-speaking lands through common law, religious freedom, presumption of innocence, trial by jury, and free markets – and how off-beat they must have seemed when first proposed."

Indeed.

And, as Cooke asks: "If we don't know that liberty is a contingent reality, with a specific historical development, that needs to be defended if it is to continue to exist, how can we be expected to defend it?"

In other words, what we don't know can hurt us. What we don't know and don't care about can hurt us even more. And if we, as a society, continue to prefer present-day ignorance and apathy to a knowledgeable and honest respect for our Founders and this Great Republic, we may very well conclude, much as Cooke did in referencing Arnold Toynbee: "An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide."

Certainly not in a perfect world.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press.

(Editor's note: The Highland County Press 2014 endorsements will be published here next week.)