music: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here
It started snowing here in Boston last night around 10:00pm, and it’s still going, not to let up until late tomorrow night. We’ve gotten 17 or so inches thus far, and it seems that we are only half done. Cars are plowed in, stores are closed, civilization is slowed to a more reasonable level. And schoolchildren (and teachers!!) are screaming injustice everywhere that this didn’t happen on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
Lots of people I talk to think snow is fun or pretty or something like that. Clearly they didn’t grow up in Wisconsin. Snow, to me, is pretty until I inevitably have to shovel it. Snow is fun as long as I don’t have anything to do or anywhere to be. But the minute I have something to do, snow gets in the way. Which is a funny way of looking at it, snow being a natural occurrence, indifferent to the fact that I am there, or that a whole city is there. And being in a city full of people who do not make plans according to the weather, snow has really thrown a wrench into things. People, in their infinite genius that progress and technology has brought them, wage war with the snow, investing millions in clearing the streets. People panic about how they don’t have enough food to last the storm when their pantries are full, and better yet, if they will have rented enough movies to last through the storm. People assume that they will be able to get from here to there just as easily, and are plain wrong. I don’t think it’s impatience, or even a sense of entitlement; I think it’s that most people, especially people who live in cities, place humanity at the top of the natural order of things, refusing to accept the fact that we are subordinate to the greater forces of nature at work on the planet. People that live outside of cities, generally, aren’t so disillusioned.
Personally speaking, snow sets off the hibernation instinct: don’t go anywhere, relax, curl up, be still. I had a great moment at about 2:00 AM last night sitting next to the window in my bedroom with a mug of tea watching the snow fall outside, all being stark and white. Somehow, because of this “setback,” things become a little more sane. Life slows down to human speed (walking, no cars), people aren’t as wasteful in their energies or actions, but if you’re really lucky, you can go sledding.
Two days of continuous snowing is one hell of a way to start the winter. Boston is not a city equipped to handle this sort of thing well, and it’s kind of nice to watch things try to work around almost two feet of thick white stuff covering everything and not really succeed. I think the secret is nowing the limits of possibility, trying not to do too much. Even the mighty metropolis must bend to the demands of all this snow. I’m inconvienced, I’m annoyed, I’m slowed down, and I’m glad for it. Now if only the power would go out, we could really get down to what this sort of thing is all about.
Posted by davidtaus at December 7, 2003 02:49 AM