Snow

 

Towards the end of this December the snow finally fell on St. Paul and Minneapolis. As soon as it becomes Fall I begin anticipate the first snowfall. And now it has occurred. My experience in the Midwest over the past thirty years suggests to me that the recent snow fall will remain on the ground until sometime in April. There will be much time for snow and ice over the next four or so months.  I tend to forget if this December snowfall is an anomaly, occurring later than usual, or if this ground cover in late December snowfall is normal. In either case, the snow is now present. The winter solstice occured on schedule on December 21at 5:05am, and the winter season is relatively new, but weather in the Midwest does not follow the regular seasonal changes. This week, for example, the temperature has finally dropped below zero degrees as a harbinger of what will come, but there have been very recent days when the air was warm enough for not a few hardy souls—mostly male—to walk about in shorts! I have had experience of winter storms here as early as Halloween. Interestingly, in Henning Mankell’s Faceless Killers Detective Wallender notes throughout that despite the winter season the snow had not yet arrived! The wind blew and chilled everyone; the rain fell and created mud everywhere. But the expected snow did not fall. The weather seemed to mirror the psychology state of the detectives and the disruption of order on earth as a result of the murders the detectives are attempting to solve. And then after six months as the frustratingly difficult, unpleasant and unsolved murder case finally opens to solution the snow arrived. The snowfall seemed to be a sign that the world had returned to its normal rhythms and conditions. Contrarily, in William Kent Krueger’s novel Iron Lake there is no beauty in the snow but only death!

     I like the beauty of snowfall. I especially enjoy the larger soft flakes that seem to float dancingly down and land gently on the ground and on the tongue. Ironically, these flakes seem to almost warm the earth on which they fall, and feather the coats and jackets of pedestrians promenading, skiing and skating amidst the snow fall. Indeed, when these flakes float down the air temperature seems almost warm as opposed to the cold I experience when fall the tiny cold snow flakes that for me a sign of wintry cold weather.
     I love the beauty of the softer gentler snow fall; and I love the quiet that results from the soft blanketing the snow drapes across the streets and walks. But too soon the plows arrive, and the snow becomes despoiled by the turned up dirt and grime. The pristine white turns shades of brown and gray; gets pushed into large mountains at intersections, driveway ends and parking lot borders; gets yellowed with dog urine. The cleanliness and beauty with which the snow has covered the soiled and wintry barren earth becomes despoiled and the skeletal, drab, and even zombie-like winter returns, and I begin to anticipate the next snow fall.