Dearest Galosh, We are sun-loving creatures too

The house has gone in hibernation-mode. I sit with a hot water bottle on my lap and draw most of the day. The girls are competing for the best spot next to the stove.

But that’s a big dogs game and Mister Sniffles is not the kind to get in the way. So he makes his own comfort on the pillows laid down on the couch.

Some days, the sun comes out. Though weak and low, it still manages to warm up the living room with two long patches of glow. Mister Sniffles knows what needs to be done. Making no obvious sign of his pursuit, he lies in wait of the moment the sun hits his favorite carpet.

His moment comes around noon. With slow movements, he stretches in preparation. To start with, there is the big leap from the couch down to the floor. Then, a drink. A look around. With meticulous craft and his signature limp he circles around his chosen spot until finally, with a clear release of tension, he becomes one with the carpet.

We are sun-loving creatures, aren’t we? Warm-blooded tiny beings, looking for a good sunny spot. Even if most of us can’t tell where the South is at any given time. You can’t even see the Sun for the buildings when living in the city, so who’s to blame? It’s all indirect light and the electric bulb! The 5 story building in front is the furthest gaze you can get.

Yet our whole being yearns for sunlight, like little Sniffles.

We take care not to overdo the Sun thing. We use sunscreen and wear long-sleeved shirts in august. As if we want to forget about its very existence. Ha! Our DNA doesn’t forget.

It doesn’t forget that for millennia, the Sun has been our energy source, our force. That our food comes from it, our climate, our streams and mountains. It keeps our blood running and our bones warm. We used to shape our days according to the movement of the Sun and now… now we forget it’s even there.

We rely so much on our beloved technology we feel no need to consider the positions of the stars. Super-insulation and a thermostat and you’re good to go. Some cheap electricity from the grid will do the trick.

We spend most of our days huddled up inside anyway, so who needs to know what the weather is like? As long as the heating is working, might as well be wearing a T-shirt for Christmas.

This cold we avoid is the very reason we appreciate the warmth. The dormancy of winter is what makes spring joyful. The generous sun ray of January is so much sweeter. Because it comes as a gift, or better said, as not a given.

Can we forget how precious this natural warmth is? We get this energy for cheap at the push of a button and consider the matter closed. Yet there is so much more to sunlight that mere Watts. The poetry, the texture, the … vitamin D! — You know I think confinement took away the vitamin D the Sun was offering. Though if most of us tend to sit inside by choice anyway, i guess it doesn’t make that much of a difference.

So in the hypothetical house that you might be building on the upper field, there is a catch. Our search for the Sun and avoidance of cold winter wind gets in the way of one of our other themes: the view. You see, the view is in the exact opposite direction from the Sun, as in North-wise.

This is a bummer in a way and also maybe not.

It sort of reminds me of that Lars Von Trier experimental movie, “The Five Obstructions”. He and another director challenge each other to film under constraint. The results are, well, Lars Von Trier-y.

Well, this is not as experimental as that, don’t worry. Constraint is part of life. And imposed constraint are a big part of creative thinking. So we might as well have fun with it!

Yours as always,

Jo

Originally published at https://jopetroni.substack.com on January 11, 2022.