Season change

We, in Chicago, have been going through a very rough winter. Now, this is not to say that it has been easy everywhere else. Yesterday, it was snowing in Las Vegas, for example! But in good ol’ Chicago, we’ve gone severe, we’ve gone berserk. We went to a polar vortex temperature. Minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit! The Fahrenheit degrees or Celsius, is not of great importance when the thermometer goes down that low. Did you know that the Fahrenheit and the Celsius meet at minus 40 degrees. You didn’t?… You should, it is an important piece of information. How do I know they meet in such a glacial environment? Because I’ve been a European living in Chicago for the last 3 decades and I had to learn that the hard way: by opening the door.

After the very cold weather, we had to deal with the busy one. It started to snow. Now, snow we can deal with. There are a few car accidents at first because people forget how to drive in slippery conditions, but that is soon forgotten and we all move on to the habit of snow: dress in gulag fashion, take your shoes off when you go to people’s home, have some handkerchief ready at all time in your pockets, don’t slip in the slush, stay inside as much as possible, etc…

As we speak, we have now moved into the ice mode. In the last few days it has rain some ice. Yes, ice! Oh, I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but there is a big difference between snow and ice: One can be charming, the other one is not. Yes, because you need a broom, maybe a shovel to get your car out of the snow. But you need a blow torch, a sledgehammer if it’s trapped in ice. That’s bigger gear, that’s a different kind of thinking. One is campy, the other one is S.W.A.T team.

Where am I going with this?

We are animals. And this winter, there has been a lot of very hard conditions. We all felt it. Our inner clocks are tuned to the environment we’re in. We are now longing to the warmer temperature. Spring will not come soon enough. Psychologically, we are attuned to the season. Meaning we are all thinking of a new beginning. We’re going to have to. There will be such a drastic difference between the winter and the spring, our mind will not be functioning the same way, our mood will be affected, our interactions, our thinking, our decisions, everything will be different. Hard frost and soft spring will oblige us to question ourselves. A lot of lives will change, a lot of sleep will be lost, a lot of resolutions will be taken. We can’t help it. Seasons are the strongest rhythm of all. And we are all grooving.