History Is Weather

I have fifteen minutes before I have to leave for work.
Shall I blog, or shall I put away the laundry out of the dryer?
As if there's any doubt in my mind.

I. First: This letter EB White wrote in 1973--a hard season, like now.
It is like what I say to myself--History Is Weather. You never know what the wind will blow in.  Carry an umbrella... like Mary Poppins.

Via Michael at Orange Crate Art, from Letters of E.B. White, ed. Dorothy Lobrano Guth (1976):

        North Brooklin, Maine

 30 March 1973
Dear Mr. Nadeau:

As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.

Sailors have an expression about the weather:
they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly.

It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time, waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.       

          Sincerely, E. B. White

 Thank you, Michael.

II.  The Plain in Spain

I haven't looked up the current weather on Camino because I didn't want to worry about Marz (not that there's anything I could do!)--but in yesterday's BBC headlines I saw southern Europe is in a heat wave.
Is northern Spain southern Europe?
I was frightened that Marz might be walking through 104ºF heat.
Wear your hat Marz!

I looked it up---and Burgos and Leon are both having 80ºF days and 50º nights---and then I worried that the Marzipan is COLD!
Wear your hat, Marz!

Here's my sketch of her wearing a hat on Day 10 of Camino 2011:

ABOVE: I am saying "yogurt" because I had an upset stomach and was happy we were in a town big enough to have a grocery store where I could buy yogurt---otherwise, as I'm always saying, it was cheese and tuna on dry bread bocadillos.

I don't remember being particularly hot in Spain, though bink & I walked across the meseta in July, like Marz is doing. In fact, though, our July 2001 walk was more comfortable than when we started in May 2011 because the air was far drier, if also far hotter.
Drink your water, Marz!
Humidity is the real slog.

It is curious to me that as I get older, a parental streak has come out in me. I feel it toward the younger people at work. I never particularly wanted children--but young(er) adults are totally different.
Possibly, partly this role is welcome to me because I loved it when older people watched out for younger me?

I hope it mostly appears as rather practical advice--
like Patti Smith's wonderful advice in a commencement speech a coupla years back:
Take care of your teeth!
I DON'T like getting entangled in emotional dramas and try to stay out of that.
When I was young myself, emotional drama was my catnip, but now it's like humidity--a slog. Though a necessary one for growing things, perhaps---a lot of humidity in the Midwest rises from growing corn! It pumps out moisture (and needs a lot).
It's a natural growth cycle.

Being older is drier weather, for me, and I like that.

Have a good day! Hold onto your hat!