Who is popular today?

All my family’s good intentions crumble when we remember just how cold it is outside in New York at this time of year
“I want to go straight home.” This is the first thing my children say to me when I collect them from school or the learning centre where they go on the days school is closed. Nothing will move them; not the promise of a cake pop from Starbucks, nor the lure of the playground, nor the odd jumbo falsehood I throw in their path. “I bet the ice-cream truck is there!” I say, walking down the hill while trying to steer them off route in the direction of the park. It is -1C (30F) outside and the sky is lightning white. Twenty minutes later we are all on the sofa and don’t move for two hours, until dinner.
This is not how it was supposed to be. All summer and autumn we talked about how, with the pandemic cutting off indoor venues for socialising, we were going to do winter outdoors. We discussed how people did it in Norway, how prolonged exposure to cold weather was not only a necessity but a spiritual advance. This would be good for us! Bundling up, learning some endurance, on top of all the other endurance we’d learned, taking great gulps of frosty air. I imagined myself in winter guise, going on brisk, self-improving walks while enjoying the latest in quilted-jacket technology. Continue reading...