The waxwings have hung around late this year. They usually move on before the hackberrys come back to life, after they do the best they can to eat all the beak-sized fruits left on the bare trees at winter’s end. But this year winter ended with a week of real winter, a weather event that we learned this week killed at least 111 people, mostly from the cold. The paper carried a gruesome story about the number of frostbite cases they saw in the ER, mostly among people living outside, warm country people who had never been taught the dangers of real cold. One hospital shared a report on the exact number of feet and toes they amputated, a statistic that illuminated the dark nexus of nature’s harsh capacities and our own ability to ignore the suffering of our neighbors.
Share this post
How to swallow a waxwing
Share this post
The waxwings have hung around late this year. They usually move on before the hackberrys come back to life, after they do the best they can to eat all the beak-sized fruits left on the bare trees at winter’s end. But this year winter ended with a week of real winter, a weather event that we learned this week killed at least 111 people, mostly from the cold. The paper carried a gruesome story about the number of frostbite cases they saw in the ER, mostly among people living outside, warm country people who had never been taught the dangers of real cold. One hospital shared a report on the exact number of feet and toes they amputated, a statistic that illuminated the dark nexus of nature’s harsh capacities and our own ability to ignore the suffering of our neighbors.