Friday, November 5, 2004

Political Controversy

In the wake of the election, I have discovered a heretofore unreported deep and divisive gap between two groups in the American electorate.  I can hardly believe that our media has failed to uncover this significant wedge issue, one that alienates me from many of my fellow Americans.  I refer, of course, to that terrifying split, the one that can never be healed, between those of us who appreciate winter and those of us who most profoundly and sincerely do not.

The first sign of this devastating situation appeared in Danielle's Den, a birding and nature blog.   This delightful writer had the unmitigated gall to express her joy over the arrival of the first flock of juncos.  In case you haven't noticed them, juncos are cheery little grayish birds with slivers of white running down the sides of their tails. The white edges flash in the sunlight as the birds make their short flights from bush to shrub in search of winter food.  "Sunlight" and "winter" are the operative words here.  There is no sunlight, not after the juncos make their appearance, because juncos are harbingers of winter.  Juncos are the real snowbirds, and they find it most pleasant to winter in the vast middle of our great nation.  They don't care whether their locale is red or blue, as long as it's not as cold as Canada. 

As far as I'm concerned, they should turn right around and head back to Ontario or Manitoba or wherever it is that they came from.  We don't need them here.  I don't know whether they are trying to spead the gospel of far right morality or the gospel of far left social justice and I don't care.  They bring the snow and ice and gray gray gray right behind them, and that's a fate worse than any brought on by provisional ballots.

Next thing I know, Theresa Williams is writing about how happy she is "to see and feel the onset of winter."  Oh, please.  She says that she loves the "gray days and the long, dark nights." Helloooooo....?  I am reluctantly crinkling my eyes open in the morning and begging the merciful God who is neither Republican nor Democrat for the tiniest glint of sunlight through the morning clouds, and she is HAPPY?  It seems that she is productive in winter.  She does a lot of planning and preparation for future writing.  All right, liberal that I am, I am always willing to concede that there may be other valid viewpoints out there, and hers does seem to work for her.  She is an insightful and thoughtful writer and brings a great deal of important work to her journal.  However, is it really necessary to gloat about winter?  Isn't there enough gloating going on right about now?

Does winter think that it has some kind of MANDATE?

Now, seriously:  Aren't sunlight and color a better way to go? 

Walked 3 miles.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd be happy to discuss my hatred of winter with you any time.  I actually turned the FURNACE on this morning.  Just two days ago I had the air conditioner on.  It is supposed to be 60ish today, but the mornings are just way too cold.  I was driving yesterday thinking about how much I hate the idea that winter is coming and I live in the south!  Anyway... you have me on your side on this political controversey.  Pamela

Anonymous said...

Now, Robin, there ARE areas of the country that actually DO see the sun between October and April.  Of course, Oregon isn't one of them...  And don't knock the juncos.  They're the only birds I have in my yard since the neightbor cut his trees down!  Lisa  :-]

Anonymous said...

Hee hee!  This is about as controversial as I feel like getting these days!  I don't mind winter here in Minnesota, EXCEPT that public buildings seem to turn up the heat so high that I feel like I'm suffocating.  Hate that.

Anonymous said...

This is delightful writing.  Thank you for making me smile--oh how I needed it.  I have been so depressed the last couple of days.  Winter, the season, I love, but there IS another kind of winter, a winter of the soul, and that's hard.  I feel as though something in me is irretrievably lost.  It is similar to how I felt when I was 13 years old and Bobby Kennedy was assassinated--this feels like a kind of death.  With the season of winter, you know the seeds are beneath the ground, that everything is in hibernation, ready to spring forth in its own season.  This winter of the soul just feels hopeless and DEAD.  So thank you for the humor.  It truly is healing.

Anonymous said...

I think a little humor is exactly what is needed right now.  Thanks, Robin.

Anonymous said...

A big ditto to Theresa's comment, below. I couldn't have put it better.
As for winter, the season,... winter has its very own kinds of beauty. Go out in the mornings when you can. Bring your camera and take more of those beautiful pictures you take. Snow-covered branches, sunsets, Snow Geese... make it like an assignment: take a few photos each week of things you can only find in winter. I don't care for the cold (or the aching bones that it causes) and dark afternoons, but I do love the differences of each season.   :)
Take care, and thanks for putting my link in your entry!

--Dani

Anonymous said...

I miss the fall colors in FL! Nice picture ... from FL, the land of the shades of green, but we do have sun :-)