Some thoughts on being a very cold human being

There isn't a whole lot I can say about cold weather that you don't already know. But I keep looking for the positive side of our frigid torment. I have to be honest: It's not easy.

Each winter my wife says she hopes we get enough cold weather to kill some of the "bugs" that cause various ailments and make us miserable. I have to say I think she got her wish this year. And we don't seem to have so many allergies. Let's count this as a plus for freezing temperatures.

My own highly unscientific viewpoint is that there is a balance in nature, and we will see a leveling effect over time. This is why I am predicting a torrid summer, one with hot extremes to offset the cold of this winter of our discontent.

If I'm right we can expect some pretty miserable days in July and August. Sorry about that. But that's the way things seem to work.

During the depth of this most recent blast of Arctic air we were reminded that the Earth's average temperature rose last year to a record high. So global warming, for all the jokes right now, is still with us.

The weather isn't the only indicator of balance in the order of things. Look at the stock market. Up. Down. Up. Down.

Look at gas prices. Up. Down. Up. Down. We have been a hair's breadth from gas prices in the two-dollar-eighty-something range, and we think that's a bargain. But many of us remember when you only paid 28 cents a gallon when there were no gas wars. Remember gas wars? Remember gas prices below 20 cents a gallon?

Another up-down reality is how workers are compensated. Pay raises are usually accompanied by higher taxes or increased deductions for things like health insurance. It's like a natural balancing system in your personal economy. And, like all those other balances, you don't have much control.

If, in fact, we are in for weather extremes at the high end of the thermometer, I hope it's spread out over enough time to be tolerable. Let's just say we don't need a week of 110-degree days this summer just because we've had a terrifically cold winter. We could tolerate a few weeks of high 90s.

But here's the deal: We don't get to choose.

Weather, gas prices, the economy, paychecks -- they all have driving forces of their own, and we are mere observers who must endure the best and the worst.

There's one thing I know for sure. We might not have any control over these factors that affect our lives, but we will continue to make them the focus of our thoughts and conversations. After all, we are still human, which gives us the capacity to gripe, knowing that whatever we say will have no real effect.

The alternative is to become like hedgehogs and simply dig our burrows a little deeper when the weather takes a plunge.

On the whole, I'd rather not stay underground. I'll add another layer and put on ear muffs. And I'll stay out of the cold as much as possible.

And I will gripe about the weather, just like everyone else.

I am only human.

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.