Saturday's Internet Edition, July 05, 2008.
By J.A Rios
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Fortunately, with today’s technology, people know much more about the weather and can even keep in step with old man winter. Few of us are surprised when there are major weather changes.
While the cold season may appear chaotic, it is orderly. It presents us with a time to rest and review. Weather Notebook writer Dave Karlotski wrote “Winter is a beautiful time: silent landscape, trees glazed in ice, moonshadows on snow, even the very stars shine brightly in the dry air.” Those are certainly the words of an optimist.
I see winter as a considerably short season. We still have some warm days. Snow and ice are rarities we can enjoy. Moreover, winter is a time for remembering. It is a good think to look back.
For example, a pleasant Rocksprings childhood memory for me is waking up on a very cold day and everything around is cold as ice. Those were the days before central heating. Mornings when the parents would get up and start the process of warming up the home. If we were lucky to have a fireplace, dad would put some logs on and get a nice flame in the fireplace. Mom would be busy in the kitchen preparing something that would warm up our stomachs and our taste buds.
We would be stuck in our warm beds covered with quilts and enjoying the sensory appeal of the start of a new winter’s day. Soon, mom would get us into appropriate cold-weather attire that consisted of several layers of clothing.
Winter was a time when we would get a long break from school. It was a time when we could see whiteness in the air when we talked. We would breathe close to the window panes and fog the glass. We would touch each other to see who had the coldest fingers and hands. We wore caps, coats, and gloves only until we went outside the house. Once outside, we would start shedding some of our things. If there was snow, we wanted to taste it. We would also try to roll enough snow into sizeable balls so we could throw them at others. If there was lots of snow, we would build a snowman. If there was ice, we would taste it, too. We were much more careful with ice because we did not want to get our tongues stuck to anything, but we still wanted the assurance that our taste buds worked well in winter. If ice was hanging from trees, we would free it. We would break off large chunks of ice and break it up. If ice covered the ground, we would jump on it to see how it would splinter. If it was windy, we would face the wind, taste it and gulp some arctic blasts of air.
We were young. We did know better because our parents told us not to do all the crazy things we did in winter. We wanted to defy the elements. We returned home with one lost mitten. We had runny noses, we had dry and cracked skin, we had our clothes all muddy and wet, we had hunger pains. Some of us got sick. All of us got a tongue lashing followed by some winter home remedy.
There is some craziness to the winter season when we are young. As we age, winter becomes a period for remembering. Symbolically, winter is a time of death and dying because it comes in the last month of the year. But winter continues into the new year and becomes a time for rebirth and renewal. We have our new year’s resolutions and the negative becomes the positive.
Dick Gordon of WBUR in Boston said “Many (people) find their best artistic inspiration below zero...(and) being challenged by the weather brings out the best in the human character.”
He pointed out that in ancient Greece, winter was the time when the lively wine god, Dionysos, was torn into bloody pieces. A stark reminder that everything comes to end. Yet Dionysos always came back in the spring.
Take the time this winter to reminisce. Make winter uplifting. Soon , it will be over.