The New Mind

Of all the seasons, it is winter that most widens the eyes, pin-pricks the pupils. We stand quietly in places—in front of the TV that announces closures; in front of the windows, peering at the slant of snow in street lights; in front of our vehicles, wondering how long it will take to shovel out; inside doorways, not wanting to walk our dogs and assessing aftermaths; in the mouths of cul de sacs, mesmerized by the silent white whale of plowed snow. Did you hear? and Can you believe? are conversation starters. When pulling out of the grocery store parking lot, even the most cynical or elderly of us is anew and whimsied at our first glimpses of snow of the year, of the season, of the day, or of the impending cyclone bomb.

I can’t believe how much snow we got last night!

Did you hear that the summit of Mt Washington was colder than Mars?!

We are in awe. Our minds are new. The visuals, the ethereal, the emotions, are pawing at our grey matter, exposing their white-sharp claws like kittens at play.

[Childlike wonder is often used to describe this newness, this freshness of experience. As if we’ve never seen snow. As if fog on the windows was otherworldly. As if the sixness of snowflakes was magic. But this reader of Rachel Carson, Mary Oliver, and the like is weary of that term. This reader, this experiencer of wonders, this walker of splendid paths, has yet to meet a child who mirrors her enthusiasm. It is true that they exist out there under the tattered or glorious wings of their caretakers, but this seer of things golden and blighted has not yet met a child who explodes as much as she.]

But I digress.

Wouldn’t it, I say…wouldn’t it be amazing if this newness, this freshness carried over into everything else?

It’s morning! I must go look at the clouds!

Can you believe how amazingly blue my wife’s eyes are?

This mozzarella is the finest, the freshest!

Ah! Nothing like a new garbage bag!

Look at how unassuming those stratus clouds are!

I can’t get over how many students said ‘hello’ to me this morning!

I just read about new-mindedness and golly gee was that refreshing!

#personal #essay #weather