Weather events during the winter tend to capture the attention of even the most inattentive of folks. “Wither thou goest” in the winter, attention seems to follow.
I don’t know if it’s just our region that people go crazy when a winter storm is forecast, but it is a known fact that hoarding and panic buying takes place in Bedford County when snow is coming. “Milk and bread, milk and bread, milk and bread,” chant the zombies, practically running through the aisles of every store that carries food. Funny, that it’s not “fruit and veggies, fruit and veggies, fruit and veggies.”
It’s truly apocalyptic and down-right nuts around here when it’s about to snow. Stay home if you don’t want to confront the crazies.
You’ve probably heard that there are from over a dozen to fifty or even seventy Eskimo words for snow, considering the several Eskimo languages. Believe it or not, one of their descriptors is, “wet snow.”
Here in Pennsylvania, we often have wet snow because humidity is part of our weather repertoire. If you’re familiar with manually shoveling the white stuff, you know how difficult it is to shovel wet snow. It’s packed with moisture and it’s heavy. You have trouble getting the stuff off of your shovel and you might as well call it sticky snow. I wonder if the Eskimo’s have sticky snow.
Now and again we also have powdery or dry snow. I think the skiing industry calls it fresh powder when they have natural snow, freshly fallen from the sky. It’s light and easy to shovel, in fact it’s a pleasure to shovel for those of us who have shoveled our driveways or walkways for the exercise of it. You pick it up into your shovel and it almost flies away in the cold breeze when you toss it.
Like many of you, I watch the weather on an app on my cell phone. When reporting the temperature, it now differentiates between the actual weather and the “feels like” weather. I think that’s sort of new, I don’t recall always seeing that distinction.
At any rate, “feels like” temperatures factor in the wind and how it affects how we feel the temperature. I like that the weather considers our feelings, how about you?
Wind is a funny thing, not ha-ha funny, but peculiar. I had a Persian (Iranian) friend who despised wind. He found it to be creepy, almost evil. I’m reminded of the cyclone from the Wizard of Oz that starts the movie and sets the scary tone.
Wind can be scary. I wonder if the instability in the atmosphere which causes wind might be responsible for our fear responses to wind. Instability and unpredictability seem to go hand in hand and neither are conducive to peace of mind.
Whether you like winter weather or summer weather or you prefer one of the introductory seasons, spring or autumn, you are bound to have an opinion about the weather. We all do.
The weather is well known to be a top “ice-breaker” and conversation starter in both social and professional settings. The biggest reason for this is that the weather is a non-political and universal experience. You simply can’t go wrong with, “so how about this weather?” It’s a safe, shared, relatable and neutral topic for conversation. Everyone has an opinion.
So, “wither thou goest, I will go,” – taken completely out of context from the Bible – the weather will comply. Just like you carry your soul, your habits, your personality, your traumas, your intellect, your attitude, and your spirit, with you wherever you go, you meet the weather there too. You can’t get away from the weather.
Weather is just something you have to adapt to. You have to go with it. You know the saying, “if you can’t beat em, join em?” Well, this is my acceptance of the weather, whatever it is. I often force myself to go outdoors and join the weather. I decided long ago not to fight the weather, I can’t beat it.
Winter does not come in around here like a whisper. You know that Pennsylvania is the home of the weather predicting groundhog? He, I believe it is always a he, but I could be wrong, tells us via his behavior and his shadow, whether we will have six more weeks of winter or not. So, on Monday February 2nd this year, Punxsutawney Phil will or will not see his shadow and we will know without a doubt if we must contend with more or less winter.
Like it or not, we sort of need moisture as parts of our back yard resemble a dried up tundra. We haven’t had enough rain and up until now, snow has been negligible this year. So a thaw in a few weeks, is kind of a needed weather event.
You’ve surely heard someone say about common conundrums, “we’re all in the same boat.” I recently came across a neat story about the storms of life. In essence, we all face the same storms, but we’re not in the same boat. Some people have access to a yacht, others have motor boats, row boats, or no boat.
We face the weather with varying resources such as wealth, want, willpower, weakness, or words of authority such as “storm, be still.” The point is, lets exercise compassion toward our fellow humans as to how we each cope with the storms that hit us all.