No story without conflict: Weather

We can’t deny that our environment physical or social has an effect on us. We are after all the supreme species of the planet, who have conquered everything on its surface. We are not particularly well adjusted to any particular climatic condition, yet we find ways to make ourselves, what is that called, “Comfortable … ?”

How do we do that? Let’s look at weather.

1. Rain

The brain is able to adapt (albeit very slowly) to different conditions. It is ingenious and is able to find ways to protect itself and the body in which it is housed. It wonder for hours when I think of this, and every time I think of it, I get goose bumps.

Those of us who live in places which receive a lot of rain, have adjusted our lives so that we can keep doing whatever we are doing without feeling the effect of not being amphibians anymore. We use an umbrella or wear a waterproof, we have built effective drainage and we have devised ways of telling ourselves that the sun needn’t shine all the time in order to be able to work optimally, and in order to be able to produce vitamin D. Because, it just turns out, and scientific research tells us that human beings are naturally more adapted to living in sunny environments.

How on earth then, did we end up living in damp and dark environments, like the Arctic Circle during winter? Beats me to not marvel at our own ingenuity and resourcefulness when I think of it.

2. Shine

On the other side of the weather spectrum, there are places which receive little or no rain at all. Like the Sahara desert, or the Arab states of the Middle East. But has that diminished the experience of life in those places by any way? Not that I know of. Not only are the tallest buildings on earth now in the Middle East, but also are the owners of the most expensive cars too. The desert keeps covering the streets, but sheer human desire, and again, resourcefulness, keeps it out.

There is in fact so much Sun in certain parts of the earth that people living there would rather prefer staying indoors for most of the day, so that they don’t die of dehydration. Vitamin D seems to them the least of their worries.

3. The conflict?

Yes. The conflict of interest arises when someone from a rainy region swaps positions with someone from a shiny region. Forgive my tacky expressions, but the fact remains that if you put someone habituated to a lot of sunshine, into the Arctic Circle where it’s always rain, wind (and snow) and very little warm sunshine, they will end up freezing their brain cells. After all, common knowledge of kitchen chemistry will tell you that if you put butter in the fridge it hardens. Without going into the details of why that happens, it is interesting to note that most of our brain is made of a similar substance, and so those buttery molecules experience a similar phenomenon of freezing when put into a fridge such as the Arctic Circle.

So the question arises, how do the people living there keep themselves defrosted? Well, for starters and for obvious reasons, they wear hats. Then they wear wools and furs and skins of other animals which don’t feel cold.

But to be honest, just wearing a hat is not enough. The body metabolism also needs to change, and that takes time. On one level, the mind tells the body that it is cold and the best way to feel warm is by drinking rum. Well, not really, even though it is important. The mind tells the body to stay active, because when the body exercises, heat is generated, and that heat can thaw everything.

Becoming active becomes a state of mind, or a habit, and it is often referred to as being proactive, or to explain it in simple words, as being able to take initiative to do stuff. The proof? Find out what the people from the north of the tropic of cancer have achieved since the beginning of time.

So where lies the conflict?

The conflict is in the transition. The conflict is in understanding what to do to adapt and what to leave behind. The conflict is in wearing a hat on a summer day when the brain cells don’t need thawing. The conflict is what comes before finding a solution to the hat, the straw hat.

The conflict is in knowing when to stay indoors and when to go out. Because while one needs to go out if it is cold and dull, one needs to stay indoors when it is burning up the stone pavement outside your window. Sounds odd right? But, what one needs to do is actually quite different from what one is expected to do.

But human nature is a strange creature. It is as quick as a fox to judge a situation, yet slower than a slug to adapt to it. What can you do with a whole planet full of these creatures living inside our heads?

That is why there is conflict, and that is why, and even though we don’t admit it, in some dark, wicked recesses of our minds, we love it.