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Jan 25, 2001
Settling into Winter
It's one third over, but that's the head start of the Holidays: by the time the season comes into focus, it's already well under way. We can use the break. No longer New Year, but this year, and the same old Winter as before. The very model of that which must be got through.This looks to be a "traditional" Winter, such as we haven't seen since the mid nineties. With all due respect to global warming, it seems that the recent mild Winters have been due to the El Nino/La Nina cycle, at least in our neck of the woods. The planet as a whole has shown increased temperatures almost yearly, but our particular weather has indeed followed the pattern expected of the Pacific (but not pacific) events: dry and hot, followed by cool and wet, while the opposite effects occur out West, where wildfires have raged. Now we are said to be back to "normal", and we've already seen more snow than the last three Winters combined.
We've also had a genuine January Thaw, after a colder than average December. Covered and frozen; then melting to exposure, the landscape of the Park takes a real beating under these conditions. At least there is less foot (or paw) traffic to exacerbate the situation. Early morning in the North End finds the Park less peopled now than at any other time of year. That's a trade off between seasons, but a fresh snowfall brings out the crowds, and a party atmosphere prevails. Children bring sleds and saucers; adults bring cameras, and try to catch a special moment, before the fairy dust goes graying slush.
That's all very nice, and I generally approve of the populace making good use of the Park, but it's not necessarily what I come for. The revelers arrive on the heels of the storm, but I'm there during the worst, (or best) of it. Whatever the weather, I feel like somebody ought to go out in it: so I do that. Not as a macho thing; to experience extreme conditions, but more as a matter of verification, like Thomas poking into Christ's wound. (There's the difference between faith and knowledge, and the reason that Thomas is the pseudoepigraphic (or inspirational?) author of Gnostic scripture.)
Not that I can spend as much time out in it as I would in kinder weather, but if it's not too inclement, I can spend all of the sunlit hours: the days are short now, another trade-off between seasons. Nevertheless, walking in eight inches of pathless snow will tire you more in an hour than would a whole day of leisure strolling. Exhilaration eventually gives way. Sometimes, that's when things get interesting. Sometimes, that's when it's time to go home. Every moment in the Park deserves attention, but not all are equally rewarding. Still, the improbable orange glow from the breast of a Red-shouldered Hawk, illuminating a damp gray day, can mitigate more than the weather.
Winter?
We'll get through it.