At this point, depending on what Punxsutawney Phil does and where you live, there are only sixty days of winter left. Here in Michigan, we start getting hopeful for nice weather around March 15th.
How are you handling it so far? Are you handling it like one writer who wrote last week: “Winter begins now, when there’s nothing left to look forward to and nothing left to look at. One final blessing on this side of the holiday divide is: At least there’s not much daylight for looking.”
I enjoy such unequivocal, Schopenhauer-like pessimism.
But I disagree with it. There’s plenty to get us through the winter, like NFL playoffs and the coming of basketball’s March Madness. There are the old stand-bys: TV (American Idol starts in six days) and increasingly-sophisticated home entertainment (fewer and fewer Americans venture out any more, even when the weather is nice, so what’s the big deal that it’s 12 degrees outside?). And for those who like fresh air, there are still things to do outside, just not as many. Communities keep their nature centers open during the winter; we can sled, skate, and ski; occasional nice days make walks possible. Heck, last week alone, I took three walks.
But the best thing about the next few months is… time. We’ll have a lot more of it. The holiday hustle and bustle are past; the spring cleaning hustle and the summer bustle aren’t here yet.
People lament these days, but during winter, time is freed up. Meetings get cancelled, visitors don’t call, the beach doesn’t beckon, and the yard work doesn’t yell. We live in a culture where time is precious, and we complain that we don’t have enough of it. And then winter comes and deposits a wealth of it along with the snow, and we complain again. Ironic.
People hate winter because they can’t do all those things that take up their time. Apparently, they want time so they can spend more time on the things that take up their time. Say that three times fast.
I try to spend these months the way I should: engaged in study, contemplation, and prayer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty good at studying, but my prayer and contemplation aren’t good at all. But I try, and this is the season I can try best because I have the time.
Things like study, contemplation, and prayer require spades of time to do most effectively. There’s a reason, after all, that the Catholic Church has established contemplative orders: to do such things well, people need time to do them frequently.
The winter months give us a taste of such a life. Yet people shrink away.
I don’t necessarily blame them. Yes, winter opens a door to the highest things, but it correspondingly opens a door to the lowest things. In the low things, one finds ennui and depression, conditions that make the spirit quail.
Instead of striving for the highest things and risking the lowest things, modern living tells us to strive constantly for the middling things, including an endless array of diversions that keep our minds off our existential plight. It’s not a horrible method of getting through life, but there is a better way. And that better way is buried beneath mounds of activity the other nine months of the year. During these next couple of months, that better way is closer to the surface.
My advice: enjoy your extra time this winter.
Maybe next week I’ll talk about that other valuable winter thing that disappears nine months of the year: silence. No lawn mowers, leaf blowers, no loud music…
© Copyright 2005 Catholic Exchange
Eric Scheske is an attorney, the Editor of The Daily Eudemon, a Contributing Editor of Godspy, and the former editor of Gilbert Magazine.
