There is something about snow that moves a certain
melancholy feeling deep inside of me. This quote from Damien Echols puts it
into perspective, at least for me.
“I miss the snow. I miss
looking at it, walking in it, tasting it. I used to love those days when it was
so cold everyone else would be tucked away inside trying to stay warm. I would
be the only one out walking, so I could look across the fields and see miles of
snow without a single footprint in it. It would be completely silent - no cars,
no birds singing, no doors slamming. Just silence and snow.”
DURANGO, CO
GEORGETOWN, CO
CORTEZ, CO
If you grew up around hard winters,
where the snow fell in feet instead of in traces, you may have grown weary of
having to deal with the shoveling and the slush and the freezing temperatures.
As with all things, too much of anything can get old and cumbersome. Having
spent many years along the Gulf coast, I came to dread the beginning of
Hurricane season, not so much because of the fear of one of Mother Nature’s
most destructive forces, but because I knew for the next six months or so,
every time a slight disturbance developed in the Atlantic or Gulf, a certain
unease would resonate through the community until the threat would dissipate.
Winter storms can create the same
anxiety. So your feelings toward snow may be more like Carl Reiner’s.
“A lot of people like
snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.”
Whether you
feel like Mr. Echols or Mr. Reiner, the next time you’re out in fresh snow, yet
untouched by human influence, try to look at it as if you were a kid
experiencing it for the first time. Snow can be truly amazing with the right
perspective.
