The Snow Storm

“Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields” 

With these lines, 19th-century American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson begins his descriptive poem of the snow storm with it's enforced solitude and wind-driven sculpturing. Looking out my window this morning, I see the Borough of South Bethlehem and the creek hill beyond covered in a blanket of fresh, new snow. As in Emerson's “Snow Storm”, there is a quietness and an emptiness that seems to blanket the world this morning as well.

South Bethlehem in Snow

In Emerson's time, snow storms were a normal part of living in the north. They happened every winter, people planned for them, and people dealt with them. In that long-ago time, when people were so much more self-reliant, the snowstorm wasn't something to be feared and dreaded, it simply was something that happened and had to be dealt with. The winter snow storm was as normal, and natural and nothing to be overly concerned about. The snow would come. People would deal with it. The snow would melt. People would tell their storm stories well into summer. The snowstorm was simply part of living.

So much has changed in 200 years! With all of our modern, scientifically wondrous technology, the naturally, normally occurring snow storm has become something to be feared, something dangerous, something almost supernatural. We have become so removed from all things natural, that a potential snow storm takes on the properties of some sort of sinister, evil, living entity, bent on wreaking havoc, causing pain, and destroying human lives.

It is just a snow storm! Snowstorms can happen in any winter. Snowstorms have been happening since the beginning of time – long before mankind arrived on the scene and they will keep on happening long after mankind has faded out of the picture. It is as natural as the sun coming up in the east and going down in the west. Yet, with all of our sophistication, all of our technology, all of our great scientific advances, we are terrified, almost to paralysis by the threat of a snowstorm.

The very technologic nature of our modern lifestyle makes us far more vulnerable to the vagaries of nature than we were in earlier, less sophisticated times. We don't, as a rule, have food stockpiled in our freezers and pantries, as our grandparents and those before them did. We don't have our own water supply, our own waste disposal systems, our own sources of heat and “power” (lighting and cooking fuels). We have become dependent, and interdependent, on the providers of our water, sewerage, electricity, gas, and oil. Most of us cannot provide for ourselves, no matter how much we might want to, and no matter how much money we may have.

There may be a certain nostalgia for being snowbound in the old farmhouse in the hills. There were kerosene lamps, Coleman camp stoves, a fireplace, and a cistern from which we could draw water. There was a freezer full of meats and vegetables. We had our own milk cow. Being snowbound was no big deal. But, we were not reliant on electricity for our entertainment, work, and information. We did not live in an instantaneous world where we thought that we had to have moment by moment information from around the world. The snowstorm was not that big a deal in that time and place; we were self-sufficient, at least for a few days at a time.

While there may be a certain comfort in remembering being snowbound 50 years ago, I don't know that I would want to return to the standard of living we had back then. I am not really sure that I would want to milk the family cow twice each day. I don't really think that I would want to carry firewood in and ashes out every day. I am not sure that I would want to rely on the three broadcast TV networks for my news anymore and I would not want to be limited to network TV for my entertainment. I think it would be difficult to get along without cell phones. All in all, I guess I am more comfortable with our progress than with the self-reliance that we may have lost.

Most of the time.

Reading over what I have written so far, I have another thought. Is it possible that we, ourselves, are not as helpless and at the mercy of nature as I might think that we are? Is it possible that our constant exposure to news and social media intensifies the perception of impending danger from what are just natural occurrences? Think about it for a bit.

TV and Internet news starts warning of storms almost a week before they hit. The constant 24-hour news broadcasting may lead to exaggeration and overhyping. When you have space (or time) to fill with words, there is a tendency to use more words than you need. Superfluous adjectives become the norm and we may use exaggerated hyperbole to describe relatively mundane events. A snowstorm headed our way is normal, but “normal” is not a great headline. Writers and newscasters are pulled toward the extreme – “life-threatening”, “devastating”, “killer storm” get thrown around with almost wild abandon. A snowstorm, that may make travel tough for a day or two gets built up into the most frightening event of our lifetime.

Maybe, the fault lies not in ourselves, but in our media. (Apologies to Wm. Shakespeare.)

The roads here in the Redbank Valley were bad yesterday and are horrible this morning, but you can get through if you take your time and are careful. We didn't lose power. It was a snowstorm. We have seen others in the past and we will see more in the future.

Oh, and it's cold here this morning. Cold, not “life-threatening”, not “devastating”, not “apocalyptic”, just cold. Bundle up if you go outside.