Glimpse into the modern winter?
The confusion seems to be mutual: Nature and climate look at each other in amazement and shock, the possibility of inevitability overwhelming both.
Back from the holidays. I feel a bit more calm. Maybe because I’m camouflaging my emotions under a package of practicalities.
The holidays were spent with just the three of us: Mom, my husband and I. Two quiet weeks with things running the way they had been planned: presents and Christmas tree ready, food and other ingredients acquired, all kinds of errands done… all before Christmas Eve. What we could control went smoothly. What we couldn’t, didn’t really happen the way it was supposed to.
Before leaving for the holiday season, we had had a glimpse of winter. Blue skies, a white sheet covering the long lawn, and cold, a cold brought by the chilly winds reminding us of the North Pole’s existence. Two weeks of winter bliss that disappeared as quickly as it came, leaving everything the way it was before: warm and green; trees showing off their stubbornness in not letting go of their sunbathing; birds staying put — why travel and all that hassle if it’s so nice and cozy here? — ; people walking in short sleeves, defying the climate. Mutual confusion.
Not much has changed with the new year. Further into the winter season, the warmest first two weeks of the year ever, at least in this area of Europe, show once more the inevitable evolution so many are either denying, ignoring or downplaying. The news, if you still dare watching them, are full of episodes of extremes, exceptional abnormal situations. One after the other. Records breaking records. Rain. Temperature. Sun hours. Fires. Snow, two much or total lack of it.
A very good friend of mine wrote an article and a book on ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) that I read with much interest. In the book, a short semi-fiction story, the author uses a regular family to describe the process and how it can be applied. Something businesses are implementing more and more, in hopefully, a serious attempt to improve the world through their behavior by measuring their impact on these three key areas. I was wondering if we, individuals, as citizens, could apply this concept to our own behavior, our daily activities at home, in the office, while traveling, on vacation…
What is our impact on the environment? On the society?
Do we behave conscientiously? Did we leave the woods the way they were before, or even better, after our hike? Did we “drop” anything and “forgot” to pick it up?
Do we really have to travel that much? Use the car so often? Maybe we can do it differently: not travel that far or combine errands?
And, are we aware that there are other people in the world, around us, that we should be aware of?
Well before having read about ESG, which brought even more awareness, we at home, had already changed some of our behaviors: being more careful with how many and how often we switch on the lights; limiting our travels both local and abroad; becoming vegetarian (going vegan); lowering the central heating temperature to 18 ℃; buying only what’s necessary and being socially conscious… among other things of less amplitude, such as wrapping Christmas presents…
This is something I love doing: wrapping presents. Always did. Original. Different. A personal touch. Strange kinds of paper, unusual ribbons… And I can spend quite a lot of time doing it too. Last Christmas it felt different. I had mixed feelings. Seeing all the paper that would be just torn apart and thrown away afterwards, all that waste… I ended up by putting most presents in beautiful Christmas bags, reusable bags, or just tied them with a nice fabric ribbon, also reusable. Just a small example of how awareness can go under your skin and without even realizing it, you’re pondering your behavior.
It can be — and it looks very much like it — that at least in this region of Europe, from now on we will only have teasers, glimpses, of the good old fashion winters. The new modern winter.
Pictures: Reichswald (Germany)
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