In Norse mythology, Ice is one of the two primordial elements. Fire is its opposite. When they come together, worlds are born (9 to be exact). In Scandinavia, in Iceland and Greenland, spring and fall are fleeting. The seasons revolve around winter, interrupted by a short, intense summer.
Is it any wonder their mythology is so extreme?
I honor the power of Ice. Ice purifies. It slows time. Put it on a fresh injury and it will slow the swelling, diminish the pain by slowing the electrical transmission of pain through the nervous system.
Ice is beautiful. Who doesn't love a glacier, a frozen pond (preferably with ice skaters upon it), a row of icicles sparkling in sunlight? What would a gin and tonic be without ice, I ask you? Well?
However, I am tired of winter. I'm tired of the power Ice is holding over Washington DC. Everything was just about to bloom when it got very cold again. I'm afraid the cherry trees will give up, drop the buds that are in a near frozen stasis right now.
If that happened, it would not be a good portent. Ice is great, but here in the midatlantic, our mythology is different. Here the seasons of fall and spring prevail, with a very intense, long summer and a MILD, SHORT WINTER.
Did you hear that, oh gods of weather? This is not Iceland! Please release the grip of Ice on our fair city. Thank you.
Shalom.
8 comments:
I'm just sitting here giggling...
Interesting reading your take on ice here today, when yesterday I saw a film 'Rust and Bone' as part of the French Film Festival, with a scene I will never forget - a child falls through the ice and his father can see him unsconscious underneath it. The only reason he can rescue his son is that he is a boxer and in a frenzy punches through the thick ice repeatedly fracturing his hands. Along with other elements it made for a powerful and very dramatic film (the boy survives !)
Good lord! Glad there's a happy ending but it sounds wrenching.
Is it cooling down there, Pam?
You and your boyfriend the weather are NOT getting along lately!
Yeah, we are quarreling, publicly. It's so tacky!
Same thing here. Early February, and too early, it looked to be spring, things budding, confused about the time of year and then we had 3 more weeks of cold with several dips into the 30s. But eventually Persephone rises.
Actually, it's funny you say that about a gin & tonic. The British traditionally drink G&T without ice. There's a great scene in the movie "The Year of Living Dangerously" where an old British military officer orders a G&T at a club and berates the waiter when it is served with ice. "Americans drink it with ice," he sniffs. "Now get me another."
Gin and tonic without ice? Inconceivable.
But then ... I am an American.
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