I like the cold just fine. Been the first year in a long while I've seen real snow fallin'. I've seen it once or twice growin' up but it would never stick. One year we went to Iowa and I saw enough snow to actually play around in. I remember bein' amazed by a bucket of water freezin' overnight. It's unheard of in Texas.
In Texas you tend to get a cool breeze here and there. A lil rain from time to time to keep the grass wet. It never gets really cold. Though Texans ain't sure what to do with cold anyway. 40 degree weather rolls in and we're bundled up like Ralphie's kid brother.
I like winter 'cause I tend to be a lil dark and broody. Dark nights that come early along with rainy weather and foggy breath tends to be good for that atmosphere. Tall, black, jagged creatures stretchin' up into the sky and swayin' in the breeze. Monsters sittin' perched upon long, thin, jagged, fingers and starin' straight into your soul with big yellow eyes. Rain fallin' from the heavens like the tears of a thousand sad little angels. In the wintertime, the world gains a swirling razor of a sharply cold wind that'll cut through any warm cloth your momma would ever think to wrap you in. Its a harsh cold world at times like that. But like always, it never lasts.
Texas is famous for it's all but forever summers. Helluva thing, the Texas summers. Any Yankees readin' this mighta heard rumors but you don't know. It's hot. I remember openin' the front door to go out and feelin' like I was openin' an oven. 104 degrees and up to play in as a kid. People dyin' in the heat from a lack of A/C. It's a helluva thing. Me and my friend would hoof it in the summers from one end of town to the other, nearly dyin' both ways, just lookin' for sumthin' fun to do.
Can you imagine it? Sweltering heat. I love that word, sweltering. It just sounds hot doesn't it? Reminds me of the concrete of the street bein' so hot the clumsy kids were especially careful not to fall. Sweat pourin' down the brows of dirty, lil boys runnin' around in t-shirts that were as wet as mops. Weather was so hot you'd cuss it knowin' if your ma had heard she'd tan your hide. The weather made you not care. It makes people a little crazy, a little wild. It's too sunny to be stuck inside on a summer day with nuthin' to do. Too hot to go outside and fry like a fat slab of bacon. Maybe a trip down to the river for a lil fishin' or a swim. Maybe readin' a good book under a nice shade tree. You gotta do sumthin' outside to keep that wild side under control.
Everybody's got that wild streak in 'em. I do. Dad does. That side that's still primal. It knows your an animal, it wants you to know it too. It knows you used to belong to the trees and wind and rain. It knows why there's hair on a man's chest and fangs in his mouth. This is the part of you that loves nature as we're meant to.
You ever pass by your old house and get to talkin' 'bout all the nice things that happened there? Anybody that's ever moved has I'm sure. I think the wild is like everyone's old home. We were all wild once just a few generations ago. We know it in our blood. People like Ernest Hemingway and Teddy Roosevelt felt it. That's why they sought out ways to enjoy nature and show their appreciation for it.
We should all show our appreciation for the parts of nature still left, that bit of ever shrinkin' fight the world has left. All that green is goin' away and bein' replaced by concrete. The way we cement over everything you'd think there's no way the world was ever as wild and untamed as it's rumored to have been. One day, not far enough from now, we'll be plowin' down that last tree not 'cause it's in our way but 'cause we won't know or care what it's for.
Nature is representative of all the magic and mystery that's left in the world. Used to be that that's where all the monsters were, it was where all the explorers would find great treasure, and where everyday people become great heroes. In our myths and legends the value of nature has never been forgotten but then you walk outside and see streets, cars, and streetlights. The damned neighbors are so close you can smell what they have for dinner and hear every fight they have. We put the same damned coffee shops and fast food spots on every other corner. We cut down all of the world's magic and have tried to explain it all with science and reason. None of it's as good as what was there before.
Sure, it's logical and it all makes sense. A cement world wrapped in a tight lil bow. A reason for every thing that happens and just chance for everythin' else. It ain't the world I want though.
I hunger for them days when I'd have a log cabin surrounded by trees instead of neighbors. I'd have a fireplace to keep warm by and cook whatever I killed. I could keep a garden and grow my own veggies. Nobody'd bother me. And I could enjoy nature and live in a nice balance with it.
That's what people never figured out how to do, live in balance with nature. It wasn't enough for us to survive and live comfortable like with nature. Nope, we had to go and try to conquer every threat to mankind. Every beast, germ, or thorny bush that ever opposed us we saw an enemy in and tried to wipe 'em all out. There only seems to be room enough for one of us. I hope in the long run it's the wilderness that beats us out.
Humanity could use a lesson in humility.
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