In late January, news reports sounded the alarm for a massive winter storm across a large section of the US. Naturally, it brought panic buying of food, snow shovels, and ice melt, and many places confronted treacherous conditions. In the aftermath though, we can gain perspective on how our frame of reference influences our expectations and decision making.
Are You Ready for It?
When we moved to Wisconsin, one of our concerns was, how cold will it be? When we moved to Oklahoma, the concern was, how hot will it be (and how many tornadoes will we have)? The underlying truth is – whatever the typical conditions are, you get used to it. What makes the difference is your frame of reference, what you can take for granted, and how prepared you will be.
Once we were living in Oklahoma, we found there was no reason to fear the heat – because everything is air conditioned! Seriously, this is the only home in my entire life where I have had 24/7 AC – who knew?! Never let trepidation stop you from taking a leap – the landing may be softer than you think.
What’s Cold to You?
Sure, I was worried about shoveling a foot of snow, because it’s been more than a decade since I’ve done that (and we gave our Toro snowblower to our Wisconsin neighbor), but the final total was physically and psychologically much less than that. So, I didn’t mind going out after it passed to shovel the sidewalk – it was sunny and beautiful, with the temperature in the teens. By Wisconsin standards, it was a perfect Sunday afternoon. By Oklahoma standards, it was frigid, and not another soul ventured out to do their sidewalk. My house was the only one ready for children to gather at the corner bus stop…even though school was closed for the next four days! My baseline for cold is waiting for a bus in 0° not including wind chill. It’s good to have a reference for what could be worse – so you can take everything else in stride as not too bad.