My theory about people who live in places that get cold.
In Michigan we have been having the most fabulous amazing wonderful weather the last few weeks. Unlike last year’s April 24 suprise snow storm (during an outdoor Earth Day festival, mind you– and a windy snow storm at that), this April was incredible…Dealing with a lot of work stress lately, waking up to one beautiful day after another is what’s kept me going, and kept my faith in the world and moving forward.
Armed with the wide angle and macro zoom combo on my Fujifilm E550 digital, I’m having quite the time documenting the details of this season’s emergence. My flickr site shows all (flickr.com/photos/gardenmuppet) so I won’t do too much reposting here. I’ve been photographing blooms on flowering trees more than I ever had– guess you can only have so many tulip and daffodil pics in the spring– and amazed, as I am very year, how ephemeral this tree-blossoming period is. You miss a couple of days, and you might miss the magnolia displays, or the little baby samaras emerging from the maple blossoms…
I have a theory about people from places that get cold, like Michigan, versus people from places that don’t… I welcome lively discussion that I could imagine might ensue. (This theory is also my own coping mechanism for staying in a place that gets cold, despite my dislike for it, so take it with a grain of salt) I think that people from places where there isn’t much seasonal difference– yes, Northern California is green in winter and brown in summer (which is very strange for me, actually), but really, the temp variation is not all that extreme– are just fundamentally different from those of us who experience the extreme variations. There’s something about plowing through a long hard winter, and the universal and visible rejoicing when spring finally breaks, that gets to a person’s core. When I was at University of Michigan, that April day when it finally went about 60 brought out literally thousands of students, taking up every possible space on the campus grounds, sunbathing, sandals, tank tops– and this at only 60 degrees. It often happens so suddenly that the impact seems even greater. Now, I couldn’t imagine anything like that in a warm weather climate, where 60 or 70 is par for the course much of the year. I think people from those places may have more of an even keel in ther personalities, because their environments have dictated such. Where I’m at, and in St. Louis where I grew up, it can be 0 in the winter and 100 in the summer, and of course everything in between. I can’t help but think that the extremes present in my personality aren’t somehow related. While I have a masters in environmental behavior, I don’t remember seeing anything about this in my studies, and think it may be a valid research question in human psyche and relations.
So, here I am, feeling incredible highs in this beautiful season, in contrast to pretty low lows as the grays of February and March lingered on (yes, I know seasonal affective disorder and lack of sunlight is a big a part of it)… But it’s also because my eyes feast on color, and suddenly after a winter with my camera searching for bits of color to satiate my visual appetite, it is all around me, and I can breathe it in and capture it film and hold on to it and smell and it and taste it…
Here’s to the highs and lows…
May 1st, 2006 at 9:07 pm
Perhaps that’s true to a point. As a New Yorker who is transplanted in the south now, let me tell you the heat gets to people, so even-temperedness is not really the case down here. Ha ha!
I do miss snow terribly though, and every year I miss it more. I still rejoice every spring down here though, just as much as I did up North. Something inherently joyful, as expressed in your photos, no matter where you are. Perhaps as you suggesdted, to do with the days getting longer.
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:05 pm
I am also in Michigan, but spent a few years living in the South, and did see differences in the personalities of the people. I need to live somewhere with dramatically different seasons. Winter here can be horrible, but it really makes me love and appreciate each spring day. Living in the south I never felt that sense of anitication, excitement, and appreciation that I feel this time of year. It is rainy and cool here, but my gardens have never looked happier, just like me!
May 3rd, 2006 at 2:29 pm
In college I had a roommate from Uganda which is on the equator. Talk about even temperature and weather. She loved the seasonal changes in places where the winters are cold and long because she liked how it affected the people. Her comment was that they know when winter comes they need to find a way to survive and still be productive, so they had winter things they did and then in the spring, summer and fall they became very active and goal oriented because they just know they cannot put things off today because tomorrow the weather may not permit them to do it and you only have a certain amount of time before winter is back. She said in her country, nobody really worried about getting things done outdoors because the weather was so mild, neither too hot or too cold, that they could always do it tomorrow.
May 7th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
I too am in Michigan and have lived here my entire life. I agree that the extreme changes in seasons make a difference. To me, there’s just something about the renewal of spring…watching perennials and buds come alive, shopping for that new pair of warm weather sandals, and the anticipation of working outside. I do appreciate the few months of warm weather and take as much of it in as I possibly can each year. Happy days!