By the way
It is the opinion of some fine Crimson Guardsmen that the Lehigh Valley is a stasis field and the people in it have stagnating lives. I feel compelled to pontificate (swallow my words with a saltshaker if you so choose).
These observations seem to be based on evidence collected between roughly October and April, i.e. the cold fall months and winter. Inertia and an attitude of quasi-hibernation sets in because the weather turns cold and the days become short, discouraging industriousness and, for the most part, restricting activity to moving via auto from one heated indoor space to another. The dark and cold sucks the life from most of nature, and that reflects on our own behavior.
The coming of warm weather has always brought with it a spirit of change, celebration of life, and generally takes from us the inertia that kept us from translating thought, fancy, and ambition into action.
In summary: During cold weather we hang out and live the status quo, enjoying whatever's right with our lives, but paying far more attention to our flaws and things we'd like to change. When the warm weather comes, we are finally spurred to action, and try to improve our situation as much as we can by the time October rolls around again, and with any luck we will have established a more pleasing status quo than before. The period of re-evaluation then begins anew.
It can suck sometimes. But for my money I'm glad I am growing up in the American Northeast. If I lived in a cold-weather place all the time I'd have no ambition. If I lived in a warm-weather place all the time I'd have no perspective. I'm glad I live in the Lehigh Valley, too. We have pretty much every luxury and amenity that big cities have, without the traffic and the jaded jerky attitude. We have (though who knows for how long) the beauty and tranquility of open spaces and wilderness too, without an overwhelming redneck population and crippling illiteracy.
Point is, relax. All is as it should be. Except the Pirates, who opened their turnaround season by getting swept by the Brewers. Whatever.
These observations seem to be based on evidence collected between roughly October and April, i.e. the cold fall months and winter. Inertia and an attitude of quasi-hibernation sets in because the weather turns cold and the days become short, discouraging industriousness and, for the most part, restricting activity to moving via auto from one heated indoor space to another. The dark and cold sucks the life from most of nature, and that reflects on our own behavior.
The coming of warm weather has always brought with it a spirit of change, celebration of life, and generally takes from us the inertia that kept us from translating thought, fancy, and ambition into action.
In summary: During cold weather we hang out and live the status quo, enjoying whatever's right with our lives, but paying far more attention to our flaws and things we'd like to change. When the warm weather comes, we are finally spurred to action, and try to improve our situation as much as we can by the time October rolls around again, and with any luck we will have established a more pleasing status quo than before. The period of re-evaluation then begins anew.
It can suck sometimes. But for my money I'm glad I am growing up in the American Northeast. If I lived in a cold-weather place all the time I'd have no ambition. If I lived in a warm-weather place all the time I'd have no perspective. I'm glad I live in the Lehigh Valley, too. We have pretty much every luxury and amenity that big cities have, without the traffic and the jaded jerky attitude. We have (though who knows for how long) the beauty and tranquility of open spaces and wilderness too, without an overwhelming redneck population and crippling illiteracy.
Point is, relax. All is as it should be. Except the Pirates, who opened their turnaround season by getting swept by the Brewers. Whatever.
posted by Face of Spades at 8:58 AM
4 Comments:
I like where your heads at Danno. I must say, everyone I know from round your parts has a pretty level head or are working on realms of greatness that I'm not sure New Jersey will ever help me cultivate.
I miss you, pops. And I hope I can see you ASAP cuz after the events of the next week, I may have some sweet stories to tell.
Developing...
Me and my contrarian nature would like to fly in the face of conventional wisdom and agree with you. The real question is, 'Where will we hold Young Blood?'
Bludd- freaking A. You give me the four onesies on your plans and I will see if I can coordinate.
Zartan- I DJed that guy Tony's wedding at Sokols upstairs two weekends ago. I think it might actually be a perfect spot for it. You can smoke up there and there is a bar...might cost a bit though.
I guess it says something about my nature that I migrated to Chicago and proceeded to spend large amounts of time walking around in the blustering cold at 2 AM in February. Dare I say the adversity of winter weather makes us all more sober, more thoughtful, more hesitant toward optimism and the idea of progress?
As Joe Jackson once said, "We
are young but getting old before our time..."
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