Winter
Whatever the official designation, winter for me is the season that
starts with the first snowfall that stays around to be admired.
This is the season to look out the window and see juncos, chickadees,
and hords of sparrows picking seeds out of the snow.
It's the season when I can look outside and be glad that I live in a
time and place where central heating is the norm.
Winter is a season when the sky can be a gray roof over a landscape
where the empty fingers of sleeping trees reach through a pale blanket
of snow.
It is a season when the sky can be an infinite depth of blue over a
glittering sea of snow.
Winter is the time of year when shoveling snow replaces mowing grass
as a typical domestic activity. For me, it the time of year when I stay
inside rather more than I like. A man with legs that work as well as
mine do finds ice and snow a trifle more challenging than they were a mere
fraction of a century ago. I still like this season, though. It's the
time of year when I can take a deep breath outside and feel nothing but
clean, cold air. And the stark landscapes appeal to my aesthetic sense.
Then, there are winter nights. This is the time of year when most of
the water vapor is frozen out. I can look up and see Cygnus flying down
the Milky Way.
The stars of Orion shine like streetlights, leading
my eyes out into the galaxy. I can let memory and imagination wander,
and consider what could happen. My ancestors, and my wife's, were settlers, not explorers.
For many reasons, they decided to leave the world they knew and came
here.
I'm glad that Ole Hovde Senior and Marie
Gulbrandson, Christian Kongelf and Martha Marie Pjaaka, John Gill of
Dublin, Ellen Hackett of County Tipperary, Louis Kaas, Casper Schluender
of Bausenhagen, Juliana Zender, and all the rest, decided to take the
long voyage and risked settling in a new world.
I think it is quite possible
that, when technology and economics permit, people will set up
housekeeping elsewhere. Maybe our grandchildren, or great-grandchildren,
will relive the tradition of the Rineharts, Campbells, Shoemakers and
Tanners, and settle a new world. If I'm still around, I hope they write.
Enough! It's getting cold out here.
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