It’s snowing in Amsterdam. Great drifts scream across the empty public squares. Birds tumble through gray skies. Cyclists, braving the weather, fight against the wind, heads lowered, faces set in pain and exhaustion.
What a way to begin. However, this was the weather two weeks ago, when I first started writing this newsletter.
Today, it’s sunny. Bright even. Golden light reflects off the glass of the buildings on the opposite side of the square from my office. There are people in the grass, throwing tennis balls to their dogs, shielding their eyes from the glare.
As I compose this newsletter, the weather is constantly changing. It’s difficult to give you an up-to-date report on the climate. Writing is a mechanically slow act. The weather, on the other hand, is ever-changing and full of its own whims and characteristics.
It is these rapid changes in climate that greatly impact our mood. Writers are no more immune to these fleeting currents than any other citizen.
Weather can bring joy or a gallows mood. It can also be as inconsequential as a sneeze. An icebreaker used while waiting on line at the post office or to navigate difficult social contexts—a subject that’s easy to engage with, no matter one’s expertise.
We’re all familiar with this exchange:
Bored individual 1: I’m no meteorologist, but it looks like it is going to rain again.
Bored individual 2: I hear there’s a windstorm coming. They’re predicting 50km/h winds.
Bored individual 1: Again? We just had a wind storm last week!
Bored individual 2: Well, that’s climate change, isn’t it? I hear we might get snow in April this year!
Chit chat about the weather is good filler. Weather is easy. Weather can be inconsequential or dramatic, depending on the front moving in. And weather, for the most part, is apolitical, as long as you ignore the very real presence of climate change in the face of a denier.
While filler is great for conversation, it can kill the mood in writing. But writing weather can also, when used properly, captivate an audience.
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