We’ve become flakes in face of winter
Like everybody else around here, I discussed the weather Wednesday.
We all had our little stories.
But one thing in particular struck me, because I noticed it several times. People in Spokane now feel the need to apologize if they happen to enjoy aspects of winter.
“I think the Lilac City looks quite comely wrapped in a white blanket. Sorry.”
As a region, we’ve turned some corner where the default attitude about this season is assumed to be grumbling petulance. Expressing a contrary or qualified perspective invites wary looks and muttered doubts about your sanity.
You know it’s true.
This isn’t how it was when I moved here 20 years ago. I swear. Back then, a different mind-set prevailed: Snow happens; deal with it.
That hardy outlook still exists in isolated pockets, but it’s on the endangered list.
So what caused this change? How did we become a city of whining winter wimps?
I have a theory.
Our evolving obsession with summer has screwed with our heads.
Lake life has always been important here. But in recent years it has come to symbolize nothing less than Inland Northwest wish-fulfillment. Not satisfied to bake our bods on the dock and straddle personal watercraft from May to September, many of us now seem to yearn for an endless summer.
Folks, that’s just all kinds of crazy.
The thing about a four-season climate is that it comes with trade-offs. You want summers like ours? Well, guess what. There’s another side to the coin.
Sure, January driving can be a pain. And there’s no law decreeing that you’re officially a sissy if you don’t like wooden toes and fingers.
But that’s no excuse for acting like a bunch of celebrities who didn’t get their way every time the flakes start falling.
It’s time to take back the season.
So let’s review.
This is the Inland Empire, a proud region of the North. It gets cold and snows here, sometimes a lot.
We shall not cower. We shall not quake.
We shall put on appropriate footwear and take winter in stride.
And soon it will be spring.