Poke the Bear

Jan

Snowing on New Year’s Day, 2010

It is snowing lightly outside, and it is a very quiet morning. The snow is unbroken by prints from boots, shoes or tire treads, and its colour is a most un-Toronto white. To me it seems symbolic of the new year: promise, potential and fragility. One set of tire tracks will break the spell.

The sense of fragility comes from knowing that so far this year at least, Toronto has not had any murders, no Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan, and we have not yet had the first occurrence of what seem to be sadly inevitable events; this is the soap bubble part of the year; filled with beauty, yet heart-breakingly ephemeral.

However, the fact that the bubble exists at all shows that this special time is not impossible; the challenge is to make it last as long as possible.