The great thaw is about to begin. Yes, right now the temperature is rising above thirty degrees and it is projected to stay there soaring above frozen rigidity for more than a brief moment. February 2015 was tied for the coldest Chicago February on record with 1875, and we felt it. We felt it with our frozen fingers and frozen toes, bitter winds blistering our cheeks and keeping us unbrave indoors. Meanwhile the polar ice sheets are at the third lowest February ice coverage in recorded history and if the ice sheets don't expand over the next few weeks they could be at an all time low of winter ice coverage. We here in the Midwest and Eastern United States have been the recipients of the jet-stream carrying cold air from last summer's extreme polar ice melt which has stagnated over us and inundated us with extreme cold and record snowfalls.
Despite enjoying the thrills and abundance winter has brought to our doorstep, I do fear for the future of winter, when the polar ice caps have melted, sea levels have risen and the jet stream doesn't have the punch backed by ice melt to drop such a chilling bounty upon our bodies shrouded in woolens and gortex. My girls have so loved the few days after fresh snow has fallen and the temperature hovers just above twenty and it is warm enough to build snow forts and frolic out of doors. Those perfect days have been few, but enough to find a little happiness out of doors and vitamin E. I love both the hibernation induced by winter and the character built by the suffering (and joy) it brings. Yes running along the lake front at 6 degrees can be harrowing and painful, but life affirming and invigorating all the same. The same can be said for building snow forts or trudging the mile against bitter winds to my children's school. There is great joy in knowing winter, in marking time through the rhythms of seasonal change, of coming indoors to warm up knowing we have been transformed a little through our endurance of choosing to be out of doors.
Given the likely trajectory of our global temperatures, I have thought a lot about Winter's future. What if ice and snow are no longer synonymous with winter? What if sledding and snow shoeing and cross country skiing become folklore that our great grandchildren wonder about the truth of? What if Dubai's indoor ski mountain somehow becomes normalized? What will happen to our fortitude? Our perseverance? Our growing cycles? Which species will die and which will thrive? How precipitously will our water sources decline? Perhaps we'll pump fewer fossil fuels into the air in winter as we will need to heat our homes less? Perhaps the snow will continue to fall. But what if it doesn't?
If it doesn't will we make mock snowballs for our children to play with and tell them stories about the good ole' days of igloos and ice skating, of snow men and angels? Will we endeavor to find joy in an earth deprived of her chance to sleep? How over tired she might become, her fields no longer dormant in winter. Given all of this potential I am offering up one mended snowball. Both, as an effort to repair the damage we have already done, to mend some minuscule aspect of our changing climate, but also to provide some vague memory for future generations of how it might have been, snow rolled on snow to form balls, balls for chucking at our buddies in the park, balls for building frosty beings to converse with and dream about. This giant snowball is made from my grandmother's vintage cashmere sweaters, worn thin and loved for their softness and warmth. They have been bundled and stitch together, a warm barrier in the cold, a symbol of winter's past and the warmth needed turned into winter's future and the search for snow flush with playfulness and joy.
So get out there and love the cold while we have it. Embrace the ice and snow, but then of course, relish the warmth that is about to sweep across our doorsteps. I for one am pretty excited about it.
**Okay so the extreme cold temperatures caused my poor mock snowball to deflate a bit. Please pardon her wrinkles. Have no fear, there are treatments for such things.