Wednesday, November 29, 2006 Winter Wonderland By Henrylito D. Tacio
MOST Filipinos have not experienced winter or have not touch snow (although they may have seen it in the movies, pictures and television). And yes, I had the opportunity of touching the real thing several times already!
The first time was in 2000, when I went to New York to talk with multi-awarded environmental journalist Don Hinrichsen about a paper we would present in Washington, D.C. a year later.
It was December when I arrived and the air was very, very cold. It was good that I had a winter jacket (which I won when I attended a media conference in Bangkok, Thailand).
One Saturday morning, Dr. James W. Hansen (a close friend and former colleague at a non-governmental organization where I work) and his wife Merlie (the former Pagbilao and also a friend) and daughter picked me at the hotel where I was staying.
The Hansen couple works at the Columbia University in New York but lives in nearby New Jersey. When I arrived at their house (where I stayed for two days), there was still no snow in their backyard. As we slept, snow fell down and when I woke up the following day, I saw snow right in front of my window. I went out from my room and touched the snow for the first time in my life!
More than not, now, I knew what the Bible meant when it said: Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). White bond papers, white shirts, and white paints these are not pure white at all. Not until you have seen snow, you can't tell what pure white really is!
Being a tropical country, the Philippines has only two seasons: dry and wet. In the United States and in other temperate countries, there are four seasons: spring, summer, fall (also known as autumn) and winter.
The latter is the season with the shortest days and the lowest temperatures. In areas further away from the equator, winter is often marked by snow. This was the reason why when I was in Durban, South Africa some years back, despite it was winter season, I never saw any snow.
Depending on place and culture, what is considered to be the start and end of winter vary. Contemporary meteorology takes winter to be the months of December, January, and February in the Northern Hemisphere and June, July, and August in the Southern Hemisphere.
However, many cultures in Europe and East Asia consider winter to begin in November. A lot of famous authors and prominent people have written or spoken something about winter.
George Herbert wrote: "Every mile is two in winter."
Victor Hugo quipped: "Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face."
Rudyard Kipling noted: "No one thinks of winter when the grass is green."
Oftentimes, winter is often equated with old age, sadness, and death. Charles Kingsley wrote: "Every winter, when the great sun has turned his face away, the earth goes down into a vale of grief, and fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables, leaving her wedding-garlands to decay. Then it heaps in spring to his returning kisses."
The second time I experienced winter was in December 2002 when I returned to present the paper in Washington, D.C.
Then, when my sister and her family transferred to Livingston, Montana, I also visited them during wintertime in 2003.
After attending a conference for science journalists in Montreal, Canada in October 2004, I decided to visit my sister again and stayed there until January
8.
Now that I had experienced winter four times in my life, now I can stay that I prefer summer better.
As Josh Billings points out: "If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."
Yes, it's good to be back in my native Philippines!
