Kept in the Dark
I think one of the most depressing parts of winter is that we spend it cloaked in darkness.
It's dark when you wake up to get ready for work. The afternoons are often overcast and everyone has to drive with their headlights on. It's dark when you drive home from work. You can go days without seeing any serious sunlight.
In Michigan, you can pretty much put your sunglasses in the drawer in October and not pull them out again until April---if you're lucky.
It's like in wintertime, we've all forgotten to pay the light bill.
That's why, when you get a day of sunshine in the winter, your eyes hurt. You spend the day squinting. Everyone looks like Robert De Niro in every movie in which he's ever appeared.
But there's something called the Winter Solstice, and we actually passed it a few weeks ago---December 21 to be exact. And when you pass the solstice, you're in for longer days, slowly but surely.
When I was a kid, I remember folks talking about December 21 as being "the longest night of the year."
Kids, as we know, tend to take phrases literally. I was no exception. One year, I heard all the blather about December 21's "longest night" and when that night actually came, I thought it would be dark for the whole next day.
The "longest night" aspect, of course, is an astronomical phenomenon rooted in minutes, not hours.
But that's not what kids hear.
So here we are, 23 days past the Winter Solstice and while it's still mostly dark out, the commute home from the office isn't quite as depressing anymore. I take heart in the fact that from this point forward, nightfall stays away a tad longer, day by day.
But it's still dark a lot.
This photo was likely taken at 1:00 in the afternoon during a Michigan winter
I like December 21 in the same vein that I dread June 21, the Summer Solstice.
Because after June 21, the days start to get shorter.
I love it that in the summer, the clock will read 9:25 p.m. and you could still mow the lawn if you want. There's that much sunlight still available.
But after June 21, sunset creeps closer and closer. It's like a slow water torture.
By August, 8:00 becomes the point where you need flashlights outside. A couple months later, with the leaves on the ground and with more chill in the air, sunlight becomes a precious commodity.
Then we start the whole depressing winter thing all over again.
This blog post may seem like an exercise in futility, because no amount of complaining in the world is going to change the Earth's axis. We can't rally and join hands to make our winter days filled with more sunshine.
But I write this because today it hit me---I made it home after work with a sliver of sunshine left in the sky. It was gone a few minutes later, but this is improvement.
Plus, in Michigan, the longer the days get in the winter, the more we get to see all the snow that needs to be shoveled.
Give and take, you see.
It's dark when you wake up to get ready for work. The afternoons are often overcast and everyone has to drive with their headlights on. It's dark when you drive home from work. You can go days without seeing any serious sunlight.
In Michigan, you can pretty much put your sunglasses in the drawer in October and not pull them out again until April---if you're lucky.
It's like in wintertime, we've all forgotten to pay the light bill.
That's why, when you get a day of sunshine in the winter, your eyes hurt. You spend the day squinting. Everyone looks like Robert De Niro in every movie in which he's ever appeared.
But there's something called the Winter Solstice, and we actually passed it a few weeks ago---December 21 to be exact. And when you pass the solstice, you're in for longer days, slowly but surely.
When I was a kid, I remember folks talking about December 21 as being "the longest night of the year."
Kids, as we know, tend to take phrases literally. I was no exception. One year, I heard all the blather about December 21's "longest night" and when that night actually came, I thought it would be dark for the whole next day.
The "longest night" aspect, of course, is an astronomical phenomenon rooted in minutes, not hours.
But that's not what kids hear.
So here we are, 23 days past the Winter Solstice and while it's still mostly dark out, the commute home from the office isn't quite as depressing anymore. I take heart in the fact that from this point forward, nightfall stays away a tad longer, day by day.
But it's still dark a lot.
This photo was likely taken at 1:00 in the afternoon during a Michigan winter
I like December 21 in the same vein that I dread June 21, the Summer Solstice.
Because after June 21, the days start to get shorter.
I love it that in the summer, the clock will read 9:25 p.m. and you could still mow the lawn if you want. There's that much sunlight still available.
But after June 21, sunset creeps closer and closer. It's like a slow water torture.
By August, 8:00 becomes the point where you need flashlights outside. A couple months later, with the leaves on the ground and with more chill in the air, sunlight becomes a precious commodity.
Then we start the whole depressing winter thing all over again.
This blog post may seem like an exercise in futility, because no amount of complaining in the world is going to change the Earth's axis. We can't rally and join hands to make our winter days filled with more sunshine.
But I write this because today it hit me---I made it home after work with a sliver of sunshine left in the sky. It was gone a few minutes later, but this is improvement.
Plus, in Michigan, the longer the days get in the winter, the more we get to see all the snow that needs to be shoveled.
Give and take, you see.
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