Yes, that's right - no students. The first Friday of April, a spotless blue sky, yet no students on the playground for recess. Lockdown drill? Sudden outbreak of Ebola? Extended nap time? No, don't think so, and don't be dense. The cause of this sad scene? A strong north wind joined forces with below average temperatures to make this sixth day of April feel far more like any day of December or January.
By itself this cold day would not be blog-worthy. Heck, even a few days of the mid-winter weather we've been having wouldn't be a bother. But our first several weeks of spring have been cold and snowy and blowy and......miserable. So, too, were the several weeks before the spring equinox. A cold, but otherwise bearable winter has become a cold, no-end-in-sight spring. Below freezing temps in the forecast for the next week, another snowstorm coming on Sunday with a massive one brewing for next weekend. Spring sports are on hold, robins are hopping around in a daze, and the furnace just keeps on running.
Minnesotans take great pride in not only surviving, but embracing the challenges a winter throws at us. But that pride has an expiration date. When the rest of the country starts getting excited about March Madness we Minnesotans start suffering from it. In a normal year our madness abates by the time March moves on into April, but if Old Man Winter decides to extend his stay.....well, the Gopher State becomes the Grumpiest State.
I've been watching the World War II mini-series Band of Brothers. A couple of nights ago I watched the episode that featured the Battle of the Bulge, fought in the forests of Ardennes in Belgium from mid-December 1944 until mid-January 1945. I was already familiar with the misery American soldiers endured during that battle - the bitter cold, the lack of proper clothing or shelter or food, the length of the fighting - but watching that episode in the midst of our "unbearable" spring gave me reason to pause and assess just how much I, and we, should be complaining about the inconveniences posed by a few extra weeks of winter.
Upset that your baseball team can't strap on the spikes to go outside and play ball? Maybe try spending a month wearing one too-small pair of uninsulated boots in below-freezing temps, boots that you can't ever take off because you don't know when the next enemy attack is coming. Grumpy that the house is always too chilly? How about you go dig a hole in the yard to sleep in....every night......for a month....like your grandpa, or great-grandpa, had to do if they fought in the Ardennes? During winter. With snowflakes and bullets falling all around you. Tired of leaving the warm house to crawl into a cold car? Imagine having to crawl out of your "warm" hole in the ground instead. In the same clothes you've been wearing for weeks, clothes that are caked with ice, mud, and blood. Oh, and as you leave that hole you wonder if today's the day you take a bullet and die.
I am guilty of living soft. I complain too much about the slightest struggles. I use my energy to resent the negatives rather than show gratitude for the positives. I am deserving of reproach. My advice to you, dear reader, whether you are "suffering" through this so-called spring or live in a region where seasons stay on schedule, is to stay aware of what wears on you. Make sure the small stuff stays small. Accept what cannot be changed, saving your fight for changing what cannot be accepted. Understand that this too, whatever this is, shall pass, so until it does rejoice if applicable or quietly endure if necessary.
If you need reminders about how much tougher life really could be, educate yourself about the life of a war-time soldier. And then thank one.
Oh, today it was demisemiquaver.
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