The Power of Cold to Produce Christmas Cheer: Greetings from the Midwest

I am writing this blog to you from Dayton, OH where among other things, I am constantly aware of the outside temperature. I can see both the internal and external temperature by reading any one of the three temperature gauges that my father has installed around the house.

"Why are there three?" you might be prone to ask. "Is your parent's house so large that it actually affects local weather patterns? Are your parents meteorologists?" The answer to all these questions is "No." My father, probably a little something like your fathers, loves gadgets. My best friend Jon's dad calls any complex gadgetry "units." Refrigerator "units" and air conditioning "units" and no doubt, if he were here, he and my dad would talk about these temperature "units."

The point of this is to tell you that as I look at the one perched above the window in my father's study, it reads 4.0 degrees.

4 degrees. 4.

Although this might seem like a negative thing, it's actually quite positive. Ohio is famous for its gorgeous fall days, when the leaves change, and it's a conflagration of pumpkin orange and fire red and vivid yellow. And the sky is clear and blue, and the air around you is crisp and sharp. And it's a good thing that there are only a few of those days, because Ohioans really couldn't stand too many of those perfect days. It's a truth about midwesterners, I think, that they think their darkest thoughts on the most beautiful days. No, it's better that things quickly change to Winter. Something predictable. Miserable, yes, but predictable.

When it's 4 degrees, the thoughts of your mind don't tend to wander much. There's an immediacy, a concentration that comes when you honestly fear that in a few more seconds, your fingers could fall off. When it's 4 degrees, it's difficult to think about how much nicer your neighbor's new hardwood floors are than yours, or how you really don't like the look of yourself in front of the mirror these days. There's a simplicity when it's 4 degrees. It produces a sort of hearty gratitude that folks in temperate climates don't tend to have. It's a sense of "Whatever is going on in my life, I'm just glad to be IN HERE and not OUT THERE." There's a warmth and a goodness to that, as folks blow on their nails, and hurrily take off their shoes to get their toes closer to the fire.

"How are you doing," you'll ask a Midwesterner in Winter.

"Just glad to be in here," they'll say. Everything is better now that I'm IN HERE.

Of course, this attitude is something you have to gradually learn, and being from California and getting thrown into it produces a shock both to the body and the attitude. So I'm not quite grateful, just yet. No, I look at the 4 on the thermometer and I think, "That's just silly."

Tonight, the weather forecast says it's supposed to get up to a balmy 29 degrees. Break out the bikini, I say. We're supposed to get 12 inches of snow in the next few days. Which means we won't be going out much. Which is fine with me, because 1: it's super freaking cold and 2: it's Dayton, which means there's not that much to do.

Let me illustrate this point. On the plane home, I ran into a guy who I sort of used to know from my old church. He was returning from a mission trip to Thailand. Nice guy, showed me some home video of some breaktaking Buddhist temples before the flight attendant made him stow the device underneath his seat for take-off. I asked him what's the big news in Dayton. Just to make conversation. I said, "So, what's been going on here this past year?"

This was his actual response.

"Well, you know the Wal-mart on Wilmington Pike? Well, they made that into a Super Wal-Mart."

"You don't say," I said.

"You ever been in a Super Wal-Mart" he asked.

"No," I said.

"Grocery store and everything," he said. "They're real impressive."

This from a man who just voyaged 1000-year-old monstrous Buddhist temples gilded in gold and surrounded by stunningly manicured gardens. And he calls a Super Wal-mart impressive.

Reason No. 2203 never to move back to Ohio.

Anyway, I hope you all have a stellar Christmas. I'll return home to California in January, where no matter what, and among other things, it won't be 4 degrees.

Gratitude will flow freely from me then, you can bet.