Winter Weather

I wonder if Canadians are ever able to live without the awful weather we have?

What I mean by this is: are the ‘free’ and ‘friendly’ side of Canadians due to something other than the weather? Would we be the best country in the world if our weather weren’t so shitty?

Something I’ve noticed in winter, is how dependent we are on our communal spaces. Those recreation facilities, coffee shops and libraries which are somewhere between yours and mine.

You learn to feel comfortable, in Canada, with others at a very young age because of this. People are always in close proximity here – just look at where a huge majority of us are located geographically.

This makes me wonder if we developed our propensity to be nice because of the necessity to be in close proximity with your fellow countrymen. Do we smile at each other, hold the door, say sorry and thanks a lot because we know, to some extent, that the worst thing in most Canadians lives will not be some mean person.

Anyone can read a sense of privilege into this, a sense of ‘no one must’ve suffered because I haven’t’ – but don’t. To say nothing of the stupidity of something like that, there are not degrees of niceties.

-Clay