Weathering Storms

This past weekend, Toronto had suffered a very large amount of freezing rain and snow. Although I had been warned many times through the Internet not to travel too much, I decided that I would not let the snow and ice deter me from going out or engaging in some routine. Although I was much more cautious to walk in the slippery areas than usual, I felt a kind of excitement in going outside to see if I could survive the weather. I do believe that this attitude helps to bear the conditions, and also re-frames the experience not as a danger but as an interesting challenge that doesn't happen all the time or that often.
   The point I want to make is that everything has its own dark beauty. To stick to one status quo is to risk not being able to go out and enjoy some of the strange sights of nature. For example, as I was walking down Yonge Street yesterday toward Finch Subway Station, all I could hear was the faint rumble of the cars slowly ambling their way down the busy and slushy road. It sounded ominous, like the hidden roar of a plane engine that had been muffled by the fog and clouds themselves. But that kind of sound, however "dystopic", can inspire the imagination. The unknown or fearful places also contain a kind of unknowable and undefinable beauty.
   Years ago, such experiences might have been classified as "the sublime" according to the philosopher Edmund Burke. With the sublime comes a sense of smallness in the universe, as people begin to realize that their methods of getting on in the world don't necessarily fare against Nature, which has her own "schedule" to run. But it also allows people to adjust their ideas and thinking away from the usual routines.
     The only other two times something like this has happened in the city would have been the major power outage in 2003, and the more recent ice storm a few years back. In both these cases, I found myself faced with the unknown and able to appreciate things that I don't normally experience. During the power outage, all I had was the darkness and a couple of cats I was taking care of at the time in my old apartment. I was able to enjoy the cats much more when there was no internet or other technologies of comfort.