Snow and Sun

I haven't written in a while. Guess I've been busy at not really being all that busy, but a lack of things to do is usually what prevents us from being active in the first place. Yesterday, there was a snow storm. Furious swirls of pastry crumbs is how I'd describe it. These tiny, light particles of frozen water that create so much beauty and nuisance simultaneously. And shivering, too. Probably what took my breath away the most was walking on 9th Ave at 1am and being surrounded by silence. Soft silence. Because of the snow, I ruled the city; I was one of a few people. It was as if the city was on vacation but had forgotten to invite me. As I put it to my friend, "We're in 'I Am Legend,' minus the zombies."

Anyway, so the thing is, I can't seem to wrap my head around the whole snow thing, that people actually live in this and 1) don't find it incredible; and (quite paradoxical to my first point, I know) 2) have to deal with it every winter. Snow is just not a part of my psyche. Just like people who live by the ocean are always a little different from others, always have a bit of a different perspective on life, I think that maybe my whole life there have been "snowpeople" and I have been neglecting to reflect on the effects of snow on their outlooks. Those of us lucky enough to have been raised on sunshine and mild weather might not know something that all these snowpeople do, might lack a quality that these guys have. I'd say the quality might actually be a conditioning to drudgery, to pushing through and schlepping along no matter what. Which is a handy, albeit dulling, quality to have. I just can't imagine having to bundle up so tightly for a good portion of the year every year.

Here's the thing: since "sunpeople" are a smaller portion of the world's population, maybe there's this great divide between us, weatherwise. Maybe it's that Jane Austen quote, "One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other" revised to "One half of the world cannot understand the weather of the other." It's a subtle divide, but a significant one, I think. It's weather, after all, that we must confront day after day; it shapes our daily experience of what it means to be alive.

Beyond all this pondering, however, snow is just plain gorgeous (but not fun to sit in!) Soft blankets of diamond dust. So safe.