It's Not a Personal Experience

Growing up in a place that has winter, you learn to avoid self-pity. Winter is not a personal experience, everybody else is just as cold as you, so you shouldn't complain about it too much. You learn this as a kid, coming home crying from the cold, and Mother looks down and says, 'It's only a little frostbite. You're okay.' And thus you learn to be okay. What's done is done. Get over it. Drink your coffee. It's not the best you'll ever get but it's good enough.

--Garrison Keillor

 

Say what you will about Garrison Keillor--sounds like he made some interesting choices during his peak years--but this is no less true.   

 

I had to have a talk with the kids about the proper attire to wear during the winter. They (and we) live in Indiana, which, for many years, has been a state where it gets cold outside. It's no surprise, nor is it unique to anyone here. 

I hope you are all making your kids go outside in this. They need to breathe in the cold air, feel their nostrils stick together, and then come back in after awhile to drink some hot chocolate. You and I all went through it, and we survived, and we're fine. 

Yep, it's warmer in Anchorage, Alaska. I've seen that post too. I don't care. If you took that fact for what it implies, you would think that it's 120 degrees there in the summer. It's not. It's called jet streams and meteorology. 

Endure the winter. It will make springtime all that much better.