Speaking of tulips

The friends from the city said they loved the dear little backwoods church, only the volunteer pianist made everything sound like ''Tiptoe Through the Tulips.'' Critics!m They couldn't resist the musical afterthought, even though they knew the important thing was the spirit not the lilt.

Somehow the episode comes back to mind when the tulips themselves come out, which they are doing now in parts of America as if that April blizzard were just a passing breeze. Is the beauty of the tulips only petal deep, no more than the tune of an old song? Or is their glowing life one of the world's hints of ceaseless renewal to anyone listening for a hymn?