We're caught inside. The doors still work — both ways, but going out isn't an option. Rain, in its naked coldness, fills the whole world. Why is it we'll venture out in a blizzard, but rain, the product of warmer weather, imprisons us?
This is always a testy time of year. The enthusiasm for snow has dampened, so to speak. Ideas all seem old. We're in the netherworld of March, which can be gray and forbidding, as it is today. Tomorrow the sky will lighten to a bright blue. The same 40 degrees will seem like a May day, and the sap will run. The sweet days will start.
I always have a cautionary feel this time of year. I believe in cabin fever. Of course, I don't have it. It just has a way of showing up everywhere else, and it can sometimes ruin a good time. Cabin fever is frustration. It is small things given too much size. Anger is its logical end, and I have seen outsized anger over silly subjects take on a real life.
Beat it.
The best way, and most used way, is to get out of the cabin. Let the house stew in its own juices. Not all of us can get to a golf course on the Gulf, or a cabana on the Mexican coast. But we can get in the car and take a quick trip. Find a place you would never think of going — Grand Marais, Alpena, St. Joe Island, where, by the way, they have a fun Maple Syrup Fest this time of year. The idea is to change the view, change the curtains, eat someone else's food, and let their sink fill with dishes. Change habits.
Over the years we've all seen small issues become major international incidents. I have seen teachers crucified, and seen teachers make life miserable for a whole class of people. Years ago the hospital in the Sault went through a political bloodbath over a doctor and administrator, and I always felt that had the incident happened any other time it would have been settled quickly and quietly.
We may be caught inside some of these days, and we may be little frustrated with work and home, but remember what time of year it is. Think a little more than usual before you make the comment. Decide a little longer about the anger you feel and where it might have really come from. And then, on those sunny days, get out and do something that gives you a good feeling. And I'll see you on the other side.
Pat Egan is the former publisher of the Sault Evening News. He is a recipient of the William Allen White award for editorial writing. He and his wife Debra live at Salt Point.
