Motus Mentis

It is snowing hard, finally, here in Brooklyn. We’ve had an exceptionally mild winter so far, and most people are glad of that. The city has saved millions on snow removal, and generally everyone’s life has been a bit easier. I’ve enjoyed it too; I won’t deny that it has been nice to be able to gad about in a sweater in mid-January. But tonight we have a real blizzard upon us, a classic midwinter Nor’easter. The wind is howling, the visibility is down, the airports are backed up, and the plows are out. This won’t be one for the record books, but for the time being it is snowing mighty hard out there, and I have to say it feels pretty good. We had a little party at the kung fu school to celebrate all the hard work everyone did for New Year’s, and it was a nice example of the simple pleasure of being together with friends in a warm sheltered place while the elements rage. For all that we live in a fast-paced, ever-changing world of sophisticated technological marvels, there is still something profoundly gratifying in satisfying the ancient human needs of community and shelter, and there is nothing that reminds us of this so well as a snowstorm.