At a university event recently, our Dean said to me; “I hope you didn’t ride your bike today!”
“Why shouldn’t I ride my bike today?” I asked him
“Because it is so cold!” he said
He meant well; he was just making conversation. It’s a reaction I get often when they see me carrying a helmet and it’s below 21C outside. (That day it was a pleasant 10C) I get the same reaction if it’s raining. People literally ask; “What will you do if it rains though?”
It’s not that I’m brave or unusually tough; it’s just that I don’t like missing out. It’s fine to enjoy comfort, but addiction to it is a prison of our own making.
Anyway, here’s Baratunde Thurston on PBS’ “America Outdoors,” visiting Maine in the wintertime. He’s from LA so this is new to him:
“The more extreme the conditions, the greater the reward. Here, it’s not just about creatively figuring out how to do things in the winter to bide the time until the warmth returns. It’s about actively seeking out those conditions for the riches they have to offer.
Baratunde Thurston, in PBS series “America Outdoors” on cold conditions
Yet even in cases where your back is up against the wall, and life is proving to be just too much, it could be nature that helps save you, and helps ground you, literally and figuratively.
Here in Maine, winter is not a problem to solve, but an opportunity to experience the world in a different way; a way we would miss out on, if we were afraid of the cold.
Mainers understand that winter is a way of life, from the metamorphic coastline eons ago, The cold isn’t something to be avoided or feared; it’s something to be owned. To jump right into.”
georgewiman 