Winter Wonderland (the sequel)

--- by Jonathan


Ok, some of you who read this, especially those of you who have lived all their lives in places were snow is frequent and prevalent, are going to think I’m crazy. I love it when it snows. This is my second winter here in Cincinnati and I really thought that after the first year, I wouldn’t appreciate it anymore, but I found that I love it even more. I think it’s more than novel appreciation at this point. I think there is something quintessential to the experience of snow and ice storms that speak to my values.

Separation of time

There are only two seasons in California, the dry season and the sort of wet season. The sort of wet season last for about a month, so if you blink too long you miss it. It mostly involves some overcast clouds that 2 or 3 times in that month might actually precipitate, only to have the sun banish them a few hours later for being so rude. Here though, there are real seasons…real weather. Nothing, and I mean nothing, says winter like the first snow. It tells you that time has moved on this month, and in an hour or so you are teleported to a world of high contrast beauty. A place of striking black and whites made soft by the fall of fluffy flakes of snow. It’s like the angels of heaven have come to wrap up the dead earth in their white veils until it can be reborn again in the spring.

Changes things up

It’s so easy to get into your ruts, but winter has a way of changing everything up on you. Sometimes you have to carve the ice off of your car, or maybe your drive home will involve you doing a little fishtail when you make that turn. My favorite is when winter makes you just take a break. It’s too much snow, the roads aren’t plowed, so you just have to cancel all your plans and stay home with your family. I got to enjoy being snowed in for three days straight this winter, mostly because there was over an inch of ice fused to my downward-sloping driveway that made it more of ice slalom to my neighbor’s yard than a route to the street. Even my Osher, who is determined to spend several hours outside every day, took three steps and thought better of it and came running back inside. You just can’t do your normal routine and I love it.

Beauty

There is beauty in every season to be sure. The bright flowers and green grasses of spring that cry, life has begun again. The long glorious sunsets of summer. The multicolored world of fall. But the frozen beauty that is winter has a spiritual character unique to itself. It’s when the year has passed on its life and all the world stops to mourn. But it is also what shows us that there is more than just death at the end. In the twinkle of light reflected in low hanging icicles, we see that there is something on the other side trying to show us it’s there.

This winter we had an ice storm. A pretty big one. Because of the unique geographic position of Cincinnati relative to the southern and northern weather fronts, we get these strange clashes of systems. Basically the cold air from the north super-chills the ground and then warm wet clouds come in and rain on it. When the water hits anything, the ground, the power lines, your car, it freezes to it; instantly. If this happens long enough, like all day, then the next morning you see a world that is encased in ice. Your car door won’t open because the whole vehicle is entombed in an inch of ice. I remember going out that morning and thinking that the trees looked as if they were made of glass. When the sun came out later that day, everything sparkled in fractured prisms of light as if diamonds, not ice, had fallen the night before. Below is a link to a slide show of pictures. They can only partially impart the awesome beauty that is winter, but I do hope you enjoy them.

Slideshow to winter wonderland