And because we have such poor facilities to deal with snow in this country the whole thing closes down with just a few flakes. Laughable really. This is the worst/best snow we’ve had for years. It brings out the carnival spirit in folk, like an unexpected bank holiday. A couple of days off work or school, gives families an opportunity to play together- snow balls, sledging, building snowmen.
Unless of course you view the country as a machine and a day when the mechanism is switched off is a day in decline. To be sure it’s a day lost to business and money making.
Down at the local slopes it’s an icy Rio. People of all ages are shooting down the hill on anything they can find. The last time it happened, ten years ago, I remember some had even donned fancy dress. There was a topless guy wearing only a white apron, silver tray in hand, giving out shots of sambuca. Happy days.
There’s a down side to everything. The homeless suffer- screw sleeping rough in this. As do the elderly, the vulnerable and sick. But is this not a time for neighbours to help neighbours? For communities to come together? For people to actually talk to each other?
Keats, the Romantic poet, had a term for it. Negative Capability. It’s the ability to contemplate the world without the desire to try and reconcile contradictory aspects or fit it into closed and rational systems. There’s good, bad and every shade of grey, in everything and it’s a wise man or woman who navigates the path with that in mind and keeps an open perspective. All is in flux, including flux itself. And you can’t fuck with flux!
For me anything that disrupts the routine is challenging in a positive way. Once in a while that is- for in the paradox that is life routine is how we get things done.
Adversity in a few flakes of snow- bring it on.
