By the time Winter gets here, the voting will be over.
You’ll have most of your holiday presents wrapped and the tree will definitely be up, if that’s a thing you do. You’ll be done with pumpkin spice and will have probably seen that Dune sequel since it came out for download in June. You’ll have bought warm new pajamas that aren’t fraying around the hem
and no matter what you were worried about or how many newscasters or late night comedians communicated general chaos
you’ll be sitting somewhere with not enough time to get everything done before everything is supposed to happen, worried about food and ribbons and scotch tape
rather than everything.
In a year projected to contain so much uncertainty, the fact of Winter being just around the (very large) corner is a comforting milestone. We know what to do in Winter, the rhythm is clearly defined: Spring and Summer aren’t nearly as grounded, and Fall is great but always feels a bit like the end of something.
Winter is where the year begins, where what happened melds with what’s going to happen, and what we did dovetails with what we’re planning. Winter shakes the proverbial Etch-A-Sketch™, providing a canvas for us to dream upon, all bundled in bed or snug in our pre-warmed car.
“Good riddance…” we mutter to shoveling, but then we remember how bad our allergies are, and how much we dislike the smell of air conditioning.
By Winter, you will have realized that instead of worrying this year you could have knit yourself a dynamic and luxurious scarf (and maybe a few extra)
or ordered the new coat you said you’d get last winter (and the winter before), back during the summer (when it was on sale) as it is always more threadbare than remembered when pulled from storage
but it is still warm,
which is good because they’re saying it might snow.
But those new electric Amazon trucks are super sturdy; and those last minute packages show up, and you relax in the knowledge that the doomsayers and nayscrollers were just winding us all up, inflating the cost of commercial space.
Not that it was easy: it has all a bit of a blur, but there you are. Warm drink in hand. Winter Solstice. Tiny lights and Mariah Carey, everywhere. Back to the time of year when everything reminds us what actually matters.
only two hundred and seventy six days away.
276 days 'til Winter.