By Morf Morford, Tacoma Daily Index
For those of us who spend time outdoors, or who pay close attention to the weather, the seasons arrive with a relentless finality. I don’t know about anyone else, but as each season arrives, once I’ve adjusted, it seems to last forever. But of course, it doesn’t.
Few aspects of life are as resolutely non-negotiable as the change of the seasons. But that certainly does not mean that many, or even any of us, take the shift of seasons as anything like another expression of our natural rhythms.
We’ll complain about the weather, no matter what it is
We in the Pacific Northwest are notorious for our weather – and our near-endless complaining about it.
For most of us, it’s either too cold, or too damp, or too hot, or too dry or too soggy. Or too bright or too dark.
And as most of us know from our direct experience, we locals have a difficult time adjusting to any of it.
A popular urban legend is that we in the Pacific Northwest have the highest rate of sunglass ownership in the nation, if not the world. I know that I have my share; I’m sure I have at least ten pairs of sunglasses – which all seem to evaporate on the brightest days, and emerge in November.
And who among us does not have a closet full of umbrellas? The irony of umbrellas is that they are worthless, if not a major hazard, 90% of the time.
Umbrellas work great for light rain that comes straight down. Which almost never happens around here. Our rain is almost always accompanied by wind. Or it’s misty, and chilly. Or sideways.
If you are ever looking for evidence of human beings not learning or adapting to the whims of nature, just look for the innumerable twisted and broken umbrellas across almost every sidewalk after a major rainstorm.
Editor’s note; I have several umbrellas (that I never use). Some were gifts, some were left by friends. I have never purchased an umbrella.
We do have an annual event named in honor of our most well-known weather attribute – or at least our response to it.
Bumbershoot
According to Merriam-Webster Bumbershoot is an Americanized version of the staid (and British) term “umbrella”.
The earliest recorded use of the word “bumbershoot” was in 1876.
The NW Bumbershoot event has been around since 1971. Bumbershoot, as you might expect, takes place over Labor Day weekend, our unofficial last week of summer.
Winter makes its way to us
The days get shorter, the nights gets longer, it’s almost as if the natural world itself is nodding off into a much needed time of rest and recovery.
I have long believed that we humans, along with most creatures, should allow ourselves a time of rest and recovery, an annual Sabbath, in the darkest and shortest days of the year.
November and December are packed with holidays, shopping and social and family obligations, celebrations and gatherings. January is my suggestion for a month of recovery and repose.
No animal, according to the rules of animal-etiquette, is ever expected to do anything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the off-season of winter. -Kenneth Grahame
If we don’t follow the example of our mammal companions and curl up or hibernate like squirrels and bears, among many others, we are likely to suffer the effects of the dialing back of the forces of nature.
In other words, if we don’t rest as we should, nature will force us. Some call it Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), but one way or another, nature will slow us down and draw us into its pace for a season.
Winter is, in nature, and perhaps even in us, a time of hushed preparation for the equally inevitable spring and summer.
Perhaps like almost everything else, seasons reveal at least as much about ourselves as they do about the shift in the cycles of nature.
People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy. -Anton Chekhov
