It was cold out in the pasture this morning, around 0, Maria was better prepared than I was, she had this great scarf to keep her face warm that a friend sent her.

I am back in the world, eating solid food, full of myself, on fire to write and work, driving Maria nuts. She was quite astounded this morning when I showed up downstairs, ready to hit the farm chores, announcing how happy I am in my new clothes: – denim shirt, new jeans, new suspenders, new socks. She looked at me in astonishment, they are exactly the same clothes you were wearing yesterday and every day this winter, they are just new. And she looked at me quietly, and then said, “it’s a good thing I love you, you are definitely cute.” This is not a word normally applied to me, but then, Maria thinks Frieda is cute and I often tell Frieda we are both lucky that Maria is an artist, and has her own idea of cute.

I re-enter the world in another bitter cold and arctic wave, it used to be called a cold spell, and by upstate New York standards, not all that much of a one, but our market-savvy media is presenting it as an assault from the arctic wasteland and as I expected, my utility sent me an e-mail warning the elderly to stay indoors and keep warm and call for help if necessary. I did not know they cared so much about me, it is sort of sweet. Two conversations helped me think about handling the weather in our world, where every single thing is both politicized and a profit center. Karl Marx had a point about capitalism.

First, a farmer friend up the road came by in his truck to save while I was doing chores.  I hear it’s going to be cold tonight, I said, he shrugged, I wouldn’t know, he said, I don’t listen to the weather any more, just gets everybody all stirred up, for mid-January, it isn’t too bad, the cows are still nosing around for grass, he said. Feels like January to me, and he looked up at the sky. “My knee doesn’t hurt too bad,” he said, “nothing to fuss over.”

Then my friend George Forss called for our morning catch-up, we talked about names for our photo show (we like “Looking At Our World”) and then he said, “hey, Jon, I heard on the TV we are getting some seriously cold weather, it sounds pretty bad.” George told me they named the new system – Janus – and the weather people said it was going to be bad, winds, snow, bitter cold. What did I think?, he asked.

Well, I sort of shrugged on the phone, I don’t know, I said, I don’t listen to the weather much anymore, just gets me all stirred up, for mid-January it doesn’t feel too bad, the donkeys and the sheep are our nosing around in the pasture for grass, they don’t seem concerned. Feels like January in upstate New York to me, my back doesn’t hurt, I think it’s nothing to get upset about, I said.

My own words sort of surprised me, yet this is where I have come to be, my farmer friend said it for both of us. I told George to try skipping the weather for a few days and see if he thought much about the cold at all, I understand weather is a serious story in the world now, rational people see that the weather is changing radically, but I also don’t need to accept all of the manipulative tricks the corporate weather people are employing to get George and me and you to get anxious – warnings, alerts, storm names, arctic invasions. I live in upstate New York, and you know what? It gets cold in January, every single year, for about a million years.

The farmers and the donkeys and the cows have wisdom to share, the more you listen to it, talk about it, think about it, the more you will feel it. I’m devoting the day to writing interesting things for people to read, and then trying to get some photos that capture the winter pasture. Our media culture is not really about information, they are not concerned about our comfort or safety, they are simply marketing Mother Earth the same way they market cereal. I think I’m not buying.