I was going to write about the corrosive nature of lying on our trust in democracy, but I can write about that anytime. Let’s instead focus our attentions on the more profound nature of that season known as Fall here in the beautiful Northwest.
It gets dark here, people!
Now, I know most of America thinks of rain when the great Northwest comes to mind, well, Seattle anyway, and while there’s some truth to that-it’s the gray, actually-the real menace is the dark. During our recent “River of Water” series of storms, there were times when, if not for high-beams and the occasional streetlight, I wouldn’t have been able to see how many fingers I had held up in front of my face. Sure, there’s the ingrained physicality of knowing how many fingers I have held up, but that’s not the point here; it’s how pervasive and embracing the dark is.
It’s dark!
This is not helpful as you grow older. The headlights of oncoming cars are blinding. It’s nearly impossible to see people walking, with or without dogs, until you’re right on top of them, which is a tad frightening. I don’t need an ominous bump in the night while I’m driving! Add to that the bicyclists and their blinking lights, which remind me of a scene in a horror movie or an epileptic episode. Speaking of horror movies, this is the perfect weather to seek out if you’re researching the mood best suited for knife wielding killers jumping out of the thick penetrating darkness ready to seal your doom.
Pretty creepy.
Some of that happens because it seems to fall on us so quickly. I, personally, blame the whole changing of the clocks orthodoxy, but that might just be me. I mean seriously, one minute it’s Summer and the day lasts from 5 in the morning till nearly 10 at night and that changes slowly, but the sun is still high in the sky and then, boom, the sun goes down at 4:18 in the afternoon! And it’s dark. 4 in the afternoon and it’s nighttime and it’s incredibly dark. And there’s the rain, which at this time of year can be actually menacing with high winds and floods and soggy leaves everywhere.
It’s tough, people, it really is.
Now, a few of you may harrumph at this, pointing out that it’s tough everywhere; east coast snowstorms, anyone? I won’t dispute that, but having travelled this great land and having lived in other places as well, I know that the clouds do not drift as low for as long as they do here. There’s far more sunshine between the deviltry the weather hands out in the rest of the world. Here the gloom invests itself; here it soaks into you, leaving you hunched over the fire, the wood stove, or buried in blanket upon blanket while DWTS breaks your heart…
Of course, the sun does make an appearance now and then, no one would live here otherwise, and some of us have gotten used to the mist seeping into our bones, but the dark, the dark is troubling, foreboding, and tiring after a while. But, as with all things, it passes.
Plus, at this time of year there are the Christmas light to soften the dark, and if I can’t stands it no more, there’s Phoenix and San Diego.
That’s what family is really for.
©2018 David William Pearce
David William Pearce, Writer 