Winter Wonderland

Contradiction:
Nearly the only thing I detest about the winter is Snow (and the cold).

Nearly the only thing I enjoy about the winter is Snow.

I think I have seen more snow this winter than an any of my former Utah years or in my college years in Rexburg. What is going on? As soon as roads and sidewalks begin to reveal themselves from beneath the gray muck I know what the forecast holds: more snow. I strongly suspect it has snowed every other day since Christmas. I think I have seen every kind of snow imaginable: small ball, big ball, small fluffy, large fluffy, downy, sticky, wet, dry...

I've heard that Eskimo and Aleut cultures have multiple words for snow. This is what Wikipedia has to say about it, "It is reasonable to suppose that Eskimo languages would have several extra words to describe snow... This is because they deal with snow more than other cultures, just as artists have more words to describe the various details of their profession — what a non-artist calls "paint", the artist identifies as 'oil paint', 'acrylic paint', or 'watercolor'. "

I dislike snow because it means the outdoors are cold enough to freeze water. There is no disputing it: I have an emense distaste of cold temperatures. Why does it have to get cold at all? In nature and the animal kingdom the winter is marked as a time of death, pain, starvation, stagnation, and regression. Winter is "The Hard Times". Sometimes I wish I could just sleep through it all like bears and other animals do.

But amongst the ugly, there can also be beauty. Yesterday morning I noticed as I walked out to my car that again it was covered in snow. Not surprising. But as I brushed off the windows this fluffy down glided so gracefully I giggled. It was magic! The sun peeked out behind thin fog-like clouds and as I drove to work through a white wonderland, glitter and sparkles flashed all around me. This is what I love about snow.

Notwithstanding my love of the organic glitter, I thank my lucky stars I am not an Eskimo. I don't want to have the expertise to identify several different kinds of snow.