I'm ready to wear shorts...

I guess I don't know how to deal with winter time. I've always been able to identify with trees, might as well give up for a few months and wait for the new life of spring. Richard Adams hit the nail on the head in Watership Down, when he talked of the anxiety of the rabbits as winter approached, and of humans who enjoy the winter, it isn't the season we enjoy, it is the proof against it. Here are things I enjoy about winter; wool, wood smoke, turkey and yams, the way snow looks, and warm beverages. Just about everything I like about winter are things we as people have developed to survive the cold months better. Even "the way snow looks" says something, we can see it and be separate from it, we can observe it, and not subjected to it the way that Mr.Adams rabbits were (unless you were unfortunate enough have a mishap in our last batch of snow). Even when winter overcomes the infrastructure that gives us proof against it, we often regard it today as a happy time, but if the lights had not come back on would we still? I guess because it brings people together, which was one of the earliest defenses we as a species used to come to grips with winter. Hard winters can be surreal, a changed landscape, a changed psychology in those we meet, I've had conversations with strangers in blowing snow and twenty degrees that were more friendly and pleasant than almost any other time. If I had to guess it would be because we all have the same thing in common, reality currently sucks.
In the winter the sun is further to the southern horizon, and so much of the quality of light we receive is eaten by traveling through that extra bit of atmosphere. I really am a creature of the sun, a being of the light, and not spiritually. I would assume I am a prime candidate for S.A.D. seasonal affective disorder. I would not trade one Arkansas July day, for a week of sunny December days.

Reminds me of that old traditional song,
"Going where the climate suits my clothes
I'm going where the climate suits my clothes
Going where the climate suits my clothes
Don't wanna be treated this a way"

Maybe one winter I'll be able to do that, but as for this winter, I'm ready to chuck it in a shallow grave.

Bring me my shorts,
James