Coping Skills

Management brings up a good point about winter. What the hell is happening here? Its December 15th, and I am still in my fall coat? This is some grade-A bull plop right here.

I am one of those hearty born and bred midwesterners, who actually likes the winter, and unseasonable warmth upsets me. Even though its warm right now, its cloudy and wet. Its in-between weather. Its cloudy, but not raining. The moisture in the air is insidious, seeping into your socks and your mood. Its warm for December, which means puddles are only partially frozen and its anyone's guess as to which one will be your undoing, and will see you deposited unceremoniously on the pavement.

I like the cold and the snow. Winter gives you a perspective on life that doesn't quite come from any other experience. It gives you a certain degree of stoicism.  Personally, I enjoy the challenge of winter. Around the first of the year I find myself asking "Will this be the year that finally kills me?"

There is a saying here in MN. "If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes, and it will change." We live in a state where 50 degree temperature swings in 24 hours, while not exactly common, is not entirely unheard of. I've celebrated my brother's March birthday with a picnics and with sledding. There is a certain degree (ha!) of the unknown in our daily weather, but sure as sugar, it will get cold, and it will get dark. And on the other side of that, it will get warm again.

Extreme weather (both hot and cold, because here we have it all) gives this place a sense of community. For example, in last year's famous Metrodome busting snow storm, I shoveled snow for nearly 12 hours. I had to be to work 24 miles away at 5 am. My dad, the hero that he is, drove to get me,  because my tiny car was stuck, at 2 am. We shoveled my road, we shoveled his road, I shoveled at work, I shoveled my grandparents, my aunt, my neighbor. A man with a cigarette and snowblower walked the city streets, grinning broadly as stranded strangers applauded.

Its what you might call "problem weather". The weather here presents all kinds of problems. "How do we build a road that with stand extreme cold and extreme heat?" "Can I carry all my groceries to my door without falling on the ice?" "Where do we put 96 inches of snow?" "How can I keep my bees alive?" "Will my car start in -40?"

But in addition to these very practical lessons the weather teaches us, it teaches something I think that can serve us far better. It teaches you that you're feelings don't really matter. 

We absolutely love to complain about the weather in MN (and we all do, I'm not above it). Its always giving us something to complain about, this is a state of uncomfortable weather. We can feel angry, and we often feel depressed, but the Earth's axis is going to go right on a'tiltin'. So go ahead, rail against the storm, try to "talk it out" with that cold front moving through. Stew all you want about the weather, but its still going to be cold, and its still going to be dark, and there is still going to be 3 feet of snow in your way.  Its why I love living here. Everyone can have as many feelings as they want, but be practical.  As depressed as you are about the sudden ice storm in late October leaving you stranded without your scraper, you still better figure out a way to scrape that ice off your car without snapping your credit card. 

So, why waste time feeling your feelings? You have a problem to solve.



Also, where's Bea?