Snow Globe

For the last two days the weather has been somewhat like a snowglobe; we’ve had gentle falling snow that never seems to accumulate.   The snow powders the earth, and then the temperature just edges above freezing, so it melts; and then it drops another two degrees, we slip below the edge of freezing, and the earth is frosted again.

It’s magnificent.

This morning on Storrow Drive,   the world disappeared.   It was snowing thick, and the grey ground was covered with it.   A fog rose above the Charles.   The world shrank to the trees on either side of the Esplanade, the outline of Kendall Square’s across the river, and the bricks of Back Bay to my right.   And the line of cars with suicidal drivers zipping down Storrow going sixty, of course.

It was a great moment, when the world and nature intrudes on the city, and lets us know where we stand.   The weather can make the world dull brown, or it can make it shine silver in the morning, and we can only drive by and watch.