When the Four Seasons Are Imaginary
Mar. 19th, 2012 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lliiraI've been trying to fold myself into Florida, accept it for what it is. I don't want to be like Bella Swan, constantly miserable because I can't adapt to my surroundings at all. So I've been thinking about seasons. For most of my life, the symbolism of the four seasons and spring and winter and all the rest made perfect sense. I didn't think about it. I thought it was universal.
Now I live somewhere "the four seasons" don't exist. We have a wet season and a dry season. Things do tend to get cold around February (relatively speaking), and the wet season is hot and humid. There is no fall or spring as I can recognize them.
So the seasons are completely different -- but we act as if they aren't. We have the festival of lights in December, but it doesn't have the impact it does up north. The lights are pretty, but it's sunny nearly every day, so they don't feel needed. The festival doesn't feel like it naturally arose from any human desire or need. It's just... there. I've worked lots of retail. In Michigan and especially in New York City, customers were substantially happier, kinder, friendlier, and more joyful around that time of year. Down here, customers are crabbier during that time.
People water their grassy lawns, wasting water and causing the water table to drop and the state to literally sink. We have "fall fashions" and are told to rejoice when summer is finally here and we can go outside and play -- in 95 degree temperatures with 99% humidity. During the wet season, public places blast air conditioning, so many of us carry sweaters even though it's boiling outside.
People water their grassy lawns, wasting water and causing the water table to drop and the state to literally sink. We have "fall fashions" and are told to rejoice when summer is finally here and we can go outside and play -- in 95 degree temperatures with 99% humidity. During the wet season, public places blast air conditioning, so many of us carry sweaters even though it's boiling outside.
Things are always green. The sun almost never disappears during the day. I rejoice on the very rare cloudy days; they're rarer than sunny days in February in Michigan.
The imposition of the "four seasons" upon this land, this weather, our own psyches, puts us drastically out of synch with our world. Many of Florida's ecological issues stem from this, of course. But I wonder how many of Florida's other problems -- with corruption, traffic, racism, unemployment -- are partly due to this foundation. We force a framework on our surroundings that does not work. How can July be the time to go outside and play when the humidity doesn't allow sweat to evaporate and there's a thunderstorm every afternoon? How can December be a time for curling up with hot cocoa in front of a fire when it's 70 degrees and sunny out?
When you're already imagining "the four seasons" in a place that obviously does not have them, ignoring the real world to believe other untrue things must be a snap.
The imposition of the "four seasons" upon this land, this weather, our own psyches, puts us drastically out of synch with our world. Many of Florida's ecological issues stem from this, of course. But I wonder how many of Florida's other problems -- with corruption, traffic, racism, unemployment -- are partly due to this foundation. We force a framework on our surroundings that does not work. How can July be the time to go outside and play when the humidity doesn't allow sweat to evaporate and there's a thunderstorm every afternoon? How can December be a time for curling up with hot cocoa in front of a fire when it's 70 degrees and sunny out?
When you're already imagining "the four seasons" in a place that obviously does not have them, ignoring the real world to believe other untrue things must be a snap.
