Meditation for January 10th, 2017
The Gentrification of Weather
It is winter here in Portland, Oregon and it has snowed three seperate times and there is a snow coming later this evening. We aren’t getting feet of snow, this also isn’t a desert or tropical place where snow never happens at all, but just the touch of snow to Portland’s streets is the same as Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans.
New Orleans is in hurricane territory. Portland is in a place where snow can happen. Both cities have invested in apparatuses that will hopefully help deal with snow and hurricanes, yet too much snow, like too much hurricane, is too much for the city to endure.
The immigrants from the upper Midwest and New England laugh at us for our inability to deal with our snow. They tout that life goes on in -23 degree Fahrenheit and 13 feet of snow while we close outside at half an inch.
The southerners, be it California, Texas, or Florida, can’t even handle it if it gets under 70 degree Fahrenheit let alone we do a few days of sun. A southerner will contemplate suicide if we have seven days of sun, but one day of rain.
Portland has some infrastructure when it comes to snow, but it is built to deal with 399,00 people deal with one day of snow. Since 2010, 40,000 people on average have moved to the city of Portland and immediately demanded the infrastructure of a large northeastern city.
If we aren’t dealing with snow snobs, we have to endure the endless onslaught of people complaining of the rainy grey weather. Never mind that it is one of the mildest climates in the country, and other than the possibility of a large earthquake, Portland is home to zero natural disasters.
The human being not only got knowledge of right and wrong from the tree of life in Eden, but humans also got the inability to ignore the weather. You say the exact same thing to your dying relative about the possibility of snow as you do when you are buying Draino and condoms from the corner market.
We have built climate controlled structures to hide from the weather, yet it is all we notice from our Nest controlled homes is that it is raining outside.
People who have no business going outside bemoan the lack of sun and warmth as if they are suddenly avid outdoorsmen. Video games happen no matter what the weather is like, so why does it matter to the most dedicated basement dweller?
Here is what helps me. I like all the weathers. If it’s sunny and warm out, I hav things I like to do out there. If it is cold and rainy out, I have enjoulyable things I like to do inside. Snow, wind, thunder, lightning are all things I like to experience.
My life is not over when it rains. Rain is more beautiful than sun. The sun is trying to kill us with cancer and drying up our drinking water supply. We are 93 million miles away from the sun for a reason. We are less than a mile away from the genisis of a raindrop.
Sometimes it is cold and that raindrop becomes a snow flake. It does nothing but inconveniencing you. Us who take our lives slow and purposeful don’t mind a little snow now and then.