As I was walking home from dropping Owen to school, I was having some deep thoughts and one of those deep thoughts was that I truly hate snow. I especially hate snow in Britain. However comma while walking the kids to and from school today, I noticed that people (at least pedestrians) are in general so much nicer in snowy weather. As you walk down the streets of Britain (and I walk a lot on the streets of Cheltenham), British people tend to go out of their way to completely avoid eye contact, to smile or to simply acknowledge that there is another human being approaching them within a two-feet perimeter because after all, you are a "stranger". When it snows, Britons look at you; they smile at you; they talk to you either to show their happiness with the conditions or to commiserate when your child is balking at walking the last 200 feet into school; they actually move to one side on the sidewalk (aka "pavement") and groups go single-file to allow passage; they refrain from suddenly stopping in the middle of the sidewalk for no apparent reason. These things rarely occur in the unsnowy world. I honestly feel like I am living in another country - perhaps akin to America - where people are friendly and courteous and enjoy smiling and talking to strangers at least where I have lived.
Even drivers are learning to take things easy and allowing other cars to enter the queue, waiting their turn to go up and down inclines, driving slower - it's amazing! They have had at least a week to practice these new skills and it shows.
It is a rare occurrence to see someone shoveling their driveways or sidewalks here and at first I was thinking that was a bad thing and that Britons expect someone else to do it for them (which really IS true), but I have come to realize that it is all okay. It's a different way of life and when everything shuts down for two inches of snow, it's okay. It's a way to slow everything down and create camaraderie among all of us - camaraderie to enjoy nature, to curse nature, to curse the government and their lame management of nature, whatever one decides.
Also, now that it has snowed so much here, my children will now be able to tell their children and grandchildren, nephews and nieces how in the olden days they had to walk four miles round trip uphill each way to school in the snow. How's that for brotherly camaraderie?!
I still hate snow, but I can appreciate what snow brings. I also appreciate that our situation could be much worse. The earthquake in Haiti looks like a true disaster and I am thankful that we just have snow.
Even drivers are learning to take things easy and allowing other cars to enter the queue, waiting their turn to go up and down inclines, driving slower - it's amazing! They have had at least a week to practice these new skills and it shows.
It is a rare occurrence to see someone shoveling their driveways or sidewalks here and at first I was thinking that was a bad thing and that Britons expect someone else to do it for them (which really IS true), but I have come to realize that it is all okay. It's a different way of life and when everything shuts down for two inches of snow, it's okay. It's a way to slow everything down and create camaraderie among all of us - camaraderie to enjoy nature, to curse nature, to curse the government and their lame management of nature, whatever one decides.
Also, now that it has snowed so much here, my children will now be able to tell their children and grandchildren, nephews and nieces how in the olden days they had to walk four miles round trip uphill each way to school in the snow. How's that for brotherly camaraderie?!
I still hate snow, but I can appreciate what snow brings. I also appreciate that our situation could be much worse. The earthquake in Haiti looks like a true disaster and I am thankful that we just have snow.
No comments:
Post a Comment