The life-affirming value of engaging winter

Ever going out snowboarding and at some point wonder how amazing it is that you’re alive out there in the cold? Mark Helprin recently wrote about the wonder–and horror–of winter in a piece called “The fire we tend against winter.” It’s flowery in spots, but perhaps that just adds to its value.

Without proper equipment and clothing, winter is deadly. As Helprin points out, Napoleon lost 98 percent of his troops when he invaded Russia. Many of them died not from enemy gunfire, but from the cold. Today the average citizen may be more equipped, at least as far as clothing goes. But we’re still vulnerable. People can and do die from hypothermia, and on a less dramatic scale, snowstorms can still wreck havoc with our commerce when they shut down airports and roads. Helprin himself nearly suffered hypothermia on a few occasions, including a hazardous walk home from the school bus stop. ” lay there, almost asleep, thinking that I was going to die. And I would have had not my dog refused to stop barking, which led to my discovery.” Scary stuff.

Helprin warns that simple thinking about winter can be life-threatening (fair enough), but the challenge is part of the game. “The world changes as snow and cold test one’s fiber and ingenuity, something that brings far more satisfaction than just living easily.”

Finally, there’s a beauty to the snowy world that cannot be denied. “What could be more lovely than the sound, just above the threshold of hearing, of falling snow?”

Indeed.