Snow

When I was a kid, Peanuts comic had a story of Charlie Brown who reasoned that the weather wouldn't stop anyone from playing baseball. In any event, Charlie Brown will stand on the mound in a drizzle, and will remain so in a downpour.

"Don't go! We have a game to play! Come back!"

I couldn't have compared myself to Charlie Brown. I quit every now and then. During our recent family trip to Hakuba, I had decided not to join my daughter to ski. This has nothing to do with the weather; we're blessed with pleasant snow. I chickened out after a workplace accident, leaving me a right shin wound. Well, the fact that many race down the slopes worry-free doesn't mean that I am not struggling with ski anxiety and afraid of ski injury.

All right, I'm scared. I am getting nervous about fall. Snow is amazing, I know. As the recent Time magazine article "Why People Love Snow So Much" mentions, snow engages all five senses. We can feel it, we can taste it, we can even find the sound of silence. A couple inches of snow can absorb up to 60% of sound. That means our world really seems quieter, and more peaceful when it's in white.

Mention Snow White, and I imagine myself looking like Bashful of the Seven Dwarfs (hiding behind cloud and trepidation, in my mind, as he often does).