I scooped up a test handful of snow while walking home yesterday afternoon. This is an almost unconscious action honed fine from a childhood centered in the upper midwest. The snow was good. Really good. Heavy with water but not soggy. Fine particles mostly, but able to bond into a solid iceball with heat and pressure from gloved hands. A preliminary test pitch at a brick wall showed a rounded splatter pattern with the majority of the snow sticking in a flat circle at the point of impact. Excellent. A little too excellent. With feet heavy from more than just the weight of my waterlogged trouser cuffs, I waked to the door... and stopped. What good is life when you refuse to act when the opportunity presents itself?
So, I made snow cats.
More pictures and my reason (a call for positive political action) for sharing them with you are behind the cut.
(You can click on the thumbnails to see larger pictures on Flickr, if you care to. :)
I couldn't find any suitable little rocks or charcoal for the eyes, so I used dirt clods and dead leaves. I get an "A" for Effort, right?
The tail turned out pretty well.
The big cat is about a foot and a half tall. I started the kitten out as a mouse, but the rounded ears made him look too much like a groundhog. Pux.Phil was wrong again this year, so I don't feel comfortable expressing any public faith in the precognitive abilities of dirtbound rodents.
Finally, I come to the reason for this diary. Thank goodness, you say, but please bear with me
Chances are good that my little cats won't live to see the weekend.
We're getting more snow today and hateful people often knock down snow critters for the pleasure of seeing something novel and harmless smashed to a pulp. I could have put them closer to the door where they'd be safter, but then people wouldn't be able to see them from the street.
It sometimes seems that our individual actions are futile. Standing as one person, 1/6,000,000,000th of the global population, and a mere 1/8 of a drop in the genetic ocean- change looks pretty intimidating. I sit awake more nights than not worrying about what I can do as a single person to fix the government, bring our all of our troops home safely without endangering more lives in the middle east, and put our beautiful pixel back together. It's enough to stun me into inactivity. If things are so big and scary, what can one person do?
Well, one person can vote. One person can recycle and use fewer natural resources. One person can keep informed about their government and help other people to see the importance of making their voices heard. One person can teach and one person can learn. If enough of these people work hard there will be positive change.
One person (me) can build cats in the snow in the hopes of making strangers smile. They'll be knocked down, but I can always build them again- and I will.
While I was building my cats, these funny little dirtbag city sparrows were enjoying the snowmelt. Everything is beautiful when you stop to look at it and no positive action is a wasted effort. Keep up the good work, everyone!
Love and hope from
SnowCountry, resident student extremist
UPDATE:
My cats lived through the night! Of course, since we're getting 20+ more inches of snow today, they're a little.. um, obscured. But still... They lasted 12 hours+ without harm and many members of the bluehair-brigade in my apartment building told me how much they enjoyed seeing them. (they thought the kids on the 5th floor had made them, so I let the under-ten set take the credit. No harm done. :)
This week is my week to help help dig out the front steps so people can leave the building. That's positive community action too... Hooray.