Snowmageddon!

Photo by Filip Bunkens on Unsplash

If the title of this piece sounds nonsensical, then you don’t live in Central North Carolina. S-N-O-W is a four letter word here, usually spat out with a howl of, “Oh no, oh no, oh no!! Don’t know how to drive in it!! There’s no salting or plowing!!” And, foremost, the fear that we’ll STARVE because of the above conditions. (STARVE, I say!)

This collective cultural fear leads folks to absolutely vacuum store shelves clean of milk, bread, and piles of food, usually the day prior to a predicted snowfall. Stampede behavior, born of, well, terror. Stampede behavior with no regard for the food needs of other humans, nothing beyond our own personal capacity to not STARVE due to possible snow conditions (usually quite minimal.)

So here I am, fessing up. I wasn’t paying attention to the weather forecast recently. Much too late in the evening, I realized the severe weather watch for a snowstorm would begin the next day at 5 PM. (I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!) I could feel the small thread of panic that I hadn’t stocked up on food. Would there be food left on the next morning? To appease my acculturated anxiety (I’ve lived here for 30 years), I woke up early, decided to pass on my daily meditation (not a healthy choice) and was waiting, with bated breath, at my food co-op’s door by 7:55 AM for their 8 AM opening. (Would food still be available?)

Scooted into the newly opened store, got a cart, and like a bloodhound on the trail, began my rapacious hunt for all I’d need to survive. It was only when I found myself tossing 5 cans of tuna into the cart (from an already sorely diminished shelf) that I took a breath. Oh, and grabbing the last bottle of my favorite non-dairy beverage from the the refrigerator shelf. (Wait, don’t I have a completely full bottle at home?)

And, then, whomp, it hit me!

I’d transformed into a culturally primed, grimacing lunatic loading up on food, irrespective of the needs of others. Culturally primed to survive SNOW, at all costs (even the 1” we actually received) and not give a second thought to anyone else’s food needs.

Eeek! What’s a self respecting Quaker, who cares about humanity, to do when her mirror reflects this image of an anxious, snow-fearing person, hypnotically driven to disregard the food concerns of her fellow citizens? Well, damn, I don’t know.

Guess I’ll start with gratitude for having discerned the cultural fugue of which I’ve become a part (I’ll starve, I’ll starve!) Maybe make humorous comments to other store customers during the next storm watch, allowing me to see them as humans, not as opponents with whom I’m competing for groceries. Judging by the absolutely unpredictable weather in North Carolina, I’ll have plenty of opportunities to experiment….(Whoopee?)