Gazing in the Mirror

January 6 - Extreme Cold - Cleansing, Purifying

I dont hate it he thought, panting
in the cold air, the iron New England
dark; I dont. I dont! I dont hate it!
I dont hate it!
~ William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!

When we fear and resist the weather,
we chill, not from the winds and rain,
but from our own coldness of heart.
~ Ernest Holmes

I grew up in El Paso TX – where snow is there upon waking in the morning and begins to melt away by noon – most of the time. My kind of winter. Pretty and fun for a few hours and then a return to a more comfortable normality. Even so I deeply appreciate Missouri's 4 season cycles – though these vary from year to year. One year our winter was not typical. That week we had the novel experience of a Polar Vortex – an elliptical-shaped pattern of frigid winds blowing west to east and centered on the North Pole that is normally very stable and keeps that frigid air bottled up in the far north. In 2013 a kink developed in the vortex's wind, delivering Arctic air right down into the Midwest and driving temperatures down to -32 degrees F in N Dakota. Temperatures in Missouri dropped to -15 degrees F at 2:30am on Tuesday morning and stayed at -11 degrees F for several hours before beginning to climb up to -4 at 7:30am when I woke up. The day before the high was only 3 degrees.

At that time, my boys went out hiking to experience some extreme cold. The daytime high was officially 3 degrees though it may have been as warm as the low teens here. When they returned from a shorter than would be usual hike my boys were seriously traumatized by the cold. I warmed each of my sons with my body. I noticed that the youngest one's body actually felt cool to me but neither of the boys were seriously threatened because they were bundled up. It was just that cold out there. Hypothermia is an abnormally low (below 95 degrees F) core body temperature that is the result of excessive heat loss due to cold exposure. Extreme cold is especially lethal for the elderly, young children and anyone compromised by alcohol (which moves blood away from organs and sends it to the skin and therefore accelerates body cooling) or other debilitating drugs (even smoking tobacco interferes with circulation).

My older son exhibited signs of his judgment being impaired when he threw down his gloves. Drowsiness, confusion and weakness as well as uncontrolled shivering are other warning signs. Another concern with extreme cold is frostbite. Never try to warm up cold extremities with normal bath temperature "hot water" or painful swelling and burning sensations can result. Untreated long enough hypothermia can diminish the heart rate and the body starts to shut down. Eventually the heart goes into cardiac arrest. When I left for my own evening hike that day, it was 10 degrees on our backporch thermometer and 7 degrees when I returned. I may have been more focused on the temperature that evening than I was the day before when I went hiking in 14 degrees F. Anyway I do bundle up but after about 30 minutes out there I could actually sense my own body temperature dropping a bit. Not a lot but noticeably. I kept remembering my friend Ted talking about not sweating under heavy clothing in severe cold because the moisture froze under layers of clothes. Not that it actually happened to me but I have more awareness now of that possibility thanks to my friend mentioning it to me.

The will to survive in extreme cold is as important as having water, food, shelter and adequate clothing. There are special blood vessels in the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet and the face that are the body's natural heat exchangers which is why we take as much care of these as we are able – scarves, wool socks and hats along with jacket hoods. Up to 45% of body heat is lost from an unprotected head and surprisingly even more from an unprotected neck, wrists or ankles. This actually has a simple explanation – there is very little insulating fat in these areas. The brain is also very susceptible to cold and can stand the least amount of cooling without impairment. It is important not to overheat as well. This can be controlled by wearing clothing in layers. Sweat's natural tendency is body cooling. Remember that somewhat exposing heads and hands to more of the cold are the quickest way to reduce overheating. And rubbing the palms of the hands can produce heat by friction and rubbing the feet when cold can provide gentle warming.

The freezing of body tissues provokes stresses that are injurious and potentially lethal to most species. Species that inhabit the colder regions are generally well adapted and naturally have adequate protection to cope with that. Most animals avoid extreme temperatures in order to survive. Some migrate to avoid extremes. For many creatures migration isn't possible and so they seek places to hibernate. If cold is encountered abruptly, as with the recent Polar Vortex when temperatures fall quickly downward a significant amount, those species including humans that are behaviorally active during cold weather may encounter severe conditions they are not prepared for. -15 degrees C is a probable limit of survival for many species not well enough insulated from such cold. In some species the temperature of crystallization (the supercooling point) can occur at -40 degrees C. Cryo-surgery/therapy uses the application of extreme cold to destroy abnormal or diseased tissue.

The fall of 2012 was the worst year I have experienced regarding larval ticks. For the first time in 25 years I had to alter my hiking behavior to avoid most but could not avoid all of them. Extreme cold winter weather events can set back the number of insects that will plague us in summer and fall.  Some cannot survive extreme winter weather. It may sound cruel but nature has her ways of balancing out over-population problems. I believe that extreme cold is one such method of re-establishing balance. And that is just one reason to be thankful for a long, hard winter – even in temperate Missouri.

~ perspective

To be honest, I'm not a fan of cold weather,
yet I do accept that cold weather is part of
the natural order of things.
I am grateful that nature has tools such as
weather extremes to do some of the breaking
down functions of the creative cycle.
I treat situations that are dangerous to human
well-being with the utmost respect and care.
It is a more difficult survival task for humans
to live in areas with any extreme of heat or
cold but cold is definitely the more difficult.
I dislike the inconvenience of bundling up that
extreme cold requires but I am grateful if
when the next warm season comes the insect
population has become more tolerable.

#balance #cycles #death #hypothermia #insects #nature #protection #survival #weather #winter