Five Inches of Snow and Ice
The latest winter storm taught me about myself
After the latest winter storm in Pittsburgh, I looked out and there was FIVE inches of snow on my car. It took a while just to uncover it all. As I was sitting there and working my way through, cleaning it off, I had a thought.
Under all of the inches of fluffy snow, there was a thick layer of ice. Hard, unforgiving, and buried. After scraping, digging, scratching, in the end, I only uncovered a small amount of the windshield.
This made me think about how we show ourselves to the world. Especially in the modern era, we cover our lives with thick layers of fluffy, powdery snow. We talk about the weather, the latest episode of whatever, the score of whatever game.
Underneath it all, is this layer of hard, harsh judgment and boundary, represented by the ice in this living metaphor. We keep people from seeing through by keeping them out. From blocking out our struggles and our challenges. We create distance by being cold. We keep people from getting through by judging them, which is only their five inches of snow.
In the end, I uncovered the window, but only small portions were fully exposed. I left it to the sun, the warmth, and time to melt through the rest. I did my part and partnered with the cosmos for the rest.
So too with each other, we can help each other expose the window, but we can never really see all the way in, we get glimpses. We have to be patient, build trust, and show warmth and understanding to get to know ourselves and others.
