Desmond and the Weather-related Catalyst.

I was studying for my paper when I found in my lecture slides, a link to this article : "London's day of innocence". It is not exactly an under-one-minute read, but I really liked it.

The article talks about how a day of snow lifts the city from its pessimism and discontentment, even if only for a day. Jeffries described Londoners to typically be economy-driven cynics who grumble of the inefficiencies of the tube, late buses and the like. Practicality and functionality edges out space for warmth and community. Seems like the London pace of life is normally so fast that it leaves no room for enjoying simple things.

(For what it's worth, I never thought London to be like that. But it sounds like our little Island huh. We, too, rush through our work day, and return home to rush some more. We crave instant gratification, "everything must happen NOW!" )

But all that changes when snow falls on the city, on a perspective-altering day in February this year.

"In London, this doesn't happen often. We trust our dour reflexive, self-poisoning moaning as a lifestyle philosophy instead. We like it that way: strangers are strange and Britain, [curse] everything about it, doesn't work. Why don't the buses run on time? Why are we so hopeless? Why can't something be done (usually by someone else who we can blame for their shortcomings)?

[But on this day] we surrendered to delight. We found better questions to ask: how do you roll a snowman? Where [in the world] are my galoshes(rubber boots, in case you were wondering ah! -Des.)? What have you done with my sledge? Can one get to work by sleigh?"

I think my lecturer meant to draw similarities between our city and London. In essence, I think this just reminds us that there is beauty to be found in our country, in spite of our cynicism towards it. London needed snow. Could we do it without? Yes, I hear you, we have no snow here to speak of anyways. But could we find something to be thankful for without first needing a weather-related catalyst? I'm sure we could. I'm sure I need to.