Here we are - winter on the flat lands. A wonderland of frozen delights. The snow moved in after Christmas, giving us 4 or 5 inches of the white stuff. This week, another snow headed down the barrel for us bringing with it the dropping temperatures that winter is known for and the wind chill factor that TV weather forecasters depend on for added hype and growing viewership. The forecasters went into a panicked frenzy. Look at them, broadcasting from the street as they shove wine goblets purchased at the nearby Dollar Store, into a mound of snow to give the TV audience a sense of how deep the snow is on a wine glass. One weather woman, sitting in the comfort of the TV studio, with a really worried look on her face, said "This is a dangerous situation and at times like this we all need to stick together." And I just looked at her like "What?" If you've got a brain in your head, you need to stay inside!" This is not a cum-bi-yi moment. I don't even know what she is talking about. It's winter - a time when Mother Nature is trying her best to kill us! I turned it off. The forecasters are creating more stress and anxiety on people than the passing storm will ever touch.
Our household is not immune to this either. My husband, last week, as he was sitting in the easy chair in the living room, mentioned that he was cold and it was in the low twenties outside. "If I am this cold now, I can't imagine how we're going to handle the -14 degrees coming for us next week." This is the same guy who, every night, opens our bedroom window, a little, so we can have "fresh air." And I do mean every night - even that night!
He has also taken it on himself to be my overseer during this winter entrapment. It is up to him to make sure that I am doing meaningful work while we wait for the thaw. Last night he was telling me about this creativity book that he is currently reading - Creative Confidence. According to this book - undoubtedly written by amazing geniuses, when you critique a work, you should start by saying "I like" then "I wish." So by the transitive theory, Philip should point out the things he likes about my art before he ends with his wish for the changes to my work. If my eyeballs could shoot out lazer beams, Philip would be sporting a really red tan today and I would mentally be in the car heading for NY to find those amazing geniuses to just let them know that when I am creating art, it is not for someone outside my brain to step in to tell me in their "superior knowledge" how I should be changing things. I'm 60 freaking years old! I will be dead soon enough and I am not interested in what Philip or New York City or any body else has to say about what I am doing! When I tell him this in the calmest way possible, he says that I have always been defensive! (Oops, my imaginary lazer beam just burnt a hole in the wall behind his head!)
I'm beginning to understand why that weather forecaster, broadcasting from the street, in 12 inches of snow, bought a wine glass from the Dollar Store. She was the real, amazing genius, sending a hidden message for all of us. Bad weather is approaching, are you "really" ready?
