When a blizzard rolls in, snow flurries signify its arrival. The glossy white mist quickly consumes the area, hurling tiny comets across our field of vision. One of the most immediate sensations is effectively being blinded. The snow wisps into our eyes, coating our cheeks and eyelashes – quickly melting and re-freezing. Our eyelashes start to glue together from the ice, and our faces become red and statuesque.
The body position I most associate with blizzards is the blinded explorer – a person slightly hunched forward, carefully taking each step, with a hand splayed in front of their eyes to shield against the unrelenting storm.
There’s really only one goal when caught in a snowstorm – keeping moving and get the hell out of it.
Anyone in the Midwest or Northeast knows this experience well. You get caught walking in between destinations, a storm creeps up, or you simply think ‘this time I’ll be fine, I have that parka now’ – and each time you end up cursing to yourself hustling to where you’re going. Even when it’s bitterly cold, you have a long way to go, and it’s worse than you expected, you never just stop and give up. You certainly never just act clueless as to what to do. You keep going and get out of it.
Listening to one of Joey Diaz’s many recollections of his wild past, he dropped a quick but valuable insight (as he regularly does). He discussed how dark one specific period of his life was (amidst the broader, general madness). When asked how he got through it, and more specifically how he knew what to do, he responded by saying it was like going through a snowstorm. How that in a snowstorm, you’re just trying to stay warm. To get out of it. To survive. And even if you don’t know exactly where you’re going, or how long it’s going to take, you don’t just sit there with your mouth open, looking up like a moron. You keep moving. You try to figure it out, cause at the very least you know you can’t just sit there.
It’s great advice to keep you grounded when feeling lost amongst change and challenges. It made sense when Churchill said it, and it makes sense now when Joey Diaz is shouting it. Keep going.
See you tomorrow.
Nick
Inspirations: Compounding Effort, Joey Diaz, Winston Churchill
Sources: The Church of What’s Happening Now
