“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
The days are getting longer and everyone is firing up their barbecues. It’s not technically official just yet, but summer will soon be upon us. This means more camping, more fishing, and more playing in the sprinklers.
And a big part of why people enjoy summer so much is that it, well, only comes once a year. As John Steinbeck reminds us above, we come to like summer, because it is such a stark contrast to the cold of winter. This is the same reason why people escape to all inclusive resorts in sunnier climes. (Which makes me wonder about the experience of people who live in year-round hot climates and how they feel about the changing of the seasons… but I digress.)
John Steinbeck is best known for authoring such classics as Of Mice and Men
While it certainly isn’t a third world country, life in Hong Kong can be remarkably different than what I have here in Vancouver. I remember when I stayed with family about 20 years ago and I wondered how they could live in such small apartments. It fascinated me how we had to wait for the water to boil before we could take a hot shower. I couldn’t understand how they only had four TV channels, all owned by the same company. Homes of wealthier people in Hong Kong are different, of course, but where I stayed gave me a better appreciation for some of the simple conveniences that I have here.
Philosophers have argued for ages: How can we know good if we do not know evil? How can we know white if we do not know black? How can we know heat if we do not know cold? That said, it may not always be appropriate to see the world as a series of extreme dichotomies. Instead, we have to understand that everything exists in shades of grey.
It helps to see things from different perspectives. For example, some people that fall on the high side of the poverty level in the United States might be classified as poor here, but still have a higher standard of living than someone who might be considered middle class, or perhaps even rich, in another country. Things taken for granted in one place might be a luxury in another.
Food is a good example. If you go to a fast food place and order a small soft drink, the size you get is what would have been large 20 years ago. The medium is what used to be an extra large or something. Plus, I was reading the other day that the average hamburger now is about four times the size of hamburgers offered in the 1950s.
So, people complain of price increases and think they’re not getting the value they used to (which is true in some cases), but the portions are larger so, in terms of quantity, we’re probably still receiving an equal or greater value, but since we’ve become used to having more, we don’t see that difference.
I think the thing is that we only really see what is in front of us. Using your white and black mention, if you take a white sheet of paper and a sheet flood coated in black ink, you can easily see which sheet is white and which is black. But, is it the whitest white or the blackest black? It might be hard to say. You bring in another sheet of white paper, and you might see the original that you thought was white was actually slightly off-white. It looked whiter in comparison to the black, but it really wasn’t as true a white as what you thought. Likewise, you could bring in another black sheet and discover what you thought was black was really a dark gray. And, you could bring in a CMYK black sheet and discover the black sheet wasn’t as black as it could have been. But, looked at separately, it might be harder to rate the whiteness or blackness of a sheet, as it’s only in comparison to other sheets that you can really see the differences.
For how can one know color in perpetual green, and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness? – Travels With Charley. Part Two, 29
Well Michael speaking from a resort, warm weather Sarasota FL. (Rated the World’s #1 beach this past year) I like other resort area’s in warm weather climates. The difference is that I get to see what we have here year round, but when I go somewhere else I plan special events and things that are above and beyond what I would consider normal for Sarasota.
I also like to go to cold weather resorts because it is a fantastic change from the consistently warm weather I have here. I cannot get the cold weather experience here and there are so many different things that it is even more fun than a trip to a warm weather resort.
As for summer, living in Sarasota for 34 years has jaded me to it being a season other than the kids are out of school. When I lived in Pa., NJ. and Conn. it was different because we had real winters and changes in seasons. Summer meant vacations, grilling and family get together’s.
You’re one of the first people who came to mind for me when I initially read that quote. 🙂