The American statesman Benjamin Franklin is said to have stated that the only two things we are certain of are taxes and death. I propose that we expand those certainties.
Canadians are guaranteed to have four seasons with winter always being a yearly occurrence. It is our responsibility to prepare as best we are able for whatever Mother Nature pitches our way; she is in charge, therefore, we might as well endeavour to deal with the conditions she sends.
A surety from winter is snow, snow and more snow; therefore, let’s strive to accept the snowy opportunities that fall our way. Winter offers us picturesque scenery with her insulating snowfalls. In January we were blessed with a snowfall that transformed my rural community into a winter-wonderland. The challenge with that seasonal reality is to get our minds around whatever negatives one might ascribe to such occurrences, to prepare for their happenings with a positive attitude and to appreciate the opportunities they present.
I believe the effects of the Mother Nature are too often depicted as our enemies versus her realities. The latest negative weather predictions have us scrambling for shelter with dire warnings of the potentials for a catalogue of worries regarding what might occur. Our challenges are to sensibly and safely redirect those cautions into potentials of what can be experienced versus that which cannot.
Mother Nature is presenting us with her yearly opportunities to engage in not warm weather experiences or to choose to move into a bubble of semi-hibernation and complaints.
From a personal prospective, today is a blustery, snowy and cold day in my community but being a person who prepares for these conditions I did not forgo my daily walk due to the conditions, perceived by some, as being too nasty. With garments that enabled me to venture outside, there was no reason to hunker inside and complain.
As for footwear and realistic concerns with falling, I use a runner’s technique of making my suitable-sole-thickness walking boots slip-proof. At the beginning of winter, to be removed in the spring, I insert into the perimeters of each boot, within the contact points of my strides, via a driver, twelve #10 metal hex washers; six on the forefoot and six at the heel and outside I go.
Benjamin Franklin’s taxes comment applied to my aforementioned walk. We pay taxes to our governments. Our taxes pay for our governments’ equipment. Our taxes also pay for our government’s employees; however, during the before-referenced walk, the sidewalks were mostly not cleared and ironically it was safer for me to use the edges of the streets as my thoroughfares.
Some communities have the asinine governmental policy that owners must clear the sidewalks fronting their properties of ice and snow. Our taxes should be ensuring that all walkways are efficiently maintained by our employees using our equipment so as to enable foot traffic to safely venture into both mental and physical health enhancing activities.
A reality about governments’ and corporations’ present-day responses is the increasing divides between urban versus rural needs. Statistics Canada (2016) reported that Nova Scotia’s population was categorized as approximately 43 per cent rural and 57 per cent urban, thus presenting varying differences in our communities’ needs and services.
The current concerns regarding Nova Scotia Power’s services to urban Nova Scotians versus those who are rural dwellers is a case in point. A beautiful snowfall in my community of Guysborough has a drastically different effect between a densely populated urban community and my home’s sparsely inhabited rural region. We have specific needs such as more resilient power grids thereby drastically lessening the possibilities that snow, ice or wind again, and with increasing occurrences, plunging us into being without electrical power.
Another of winter’s offshoots is a human condition known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of depression that’s related to a lessening in the seasons’ daylight durations. SAD’s symptoms frequently begin in the fall and continue throughout the winter months, sapping our energy and making us feel moody. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, an estimated two to 10 per cent of Canadians are affected with SAD. One accessible-to-all treatment is to get outside and/or enable more daylight to fall upon you thereby reducing a potential contributing factor for SAD. Safe and accessible sidewalks would definitely help to remedy such a health issue.
Winter arrives at varying times due to our geographical realities, but arrive it will. As my deceased elderly cousin used to state, “it is what it is.”
Therein lay our challenges. We can grasp the opportunities to benefit from the seasonal tests as presented or we can select to move deeper into a bubble and bemoan that it is still a long way to the conclusion of this winter.
Ray Bates
Guysborough (Sedabooktook)