HOME | DD

Description

There is no such thing as cold. It is created, artificial. It comes from the purposeful sucking up of all heat, whether literal or metaphorical. Yet we speak of it as a separate entity, talk of coming in from the cold and how cold people can be. In the blaze of summer days, we long for chill breezes, but then spend the better part of colder months escaping into warmth. People are consumed by the spark of their emotions instead of keeping their cool. Others are sickened by heat and wait for winter. Glaciers of stoicism cannot be quickly melted by a lit match of passion. It is cold comfort to believe that, because it is frozen and clear outside, we have license to be colder towards others and ourselves. There is no heat distorting our senses, blurring the edges of sight and memory. The world is seen through a crisper lens, through ice instead of frost.
          Shivering in bluejeans and jackets thin for fashion's sake, forgoing practicality, teenagers revel in their ability to withstand winter, watching elder relatives bundle up in expectation of blizzards. Hiding feelings under a layer of ice formed by the condensation of careful diction, we burn bridges with frozen carbon dioxide. It is almost easier to be cold than to bother with layering up against it, than to create friction, than to allow a chance to be burnt.
          Even so, people are not cold-blooded reptiles. No matter how appealing it seems to give a cold shoulder and able to take the (lack of) heat, those who find themselves isolated and frozen curl up under thick blankets with memories and fantasies, with hot chocolate or hard liquor to warm their bones. Plush comforters and stuffed animals become poor substitution for the heat of another human being. Words we wish we could take back, or wish we had said instead of holding back, float like snowflakes into the mind and form drifts of bitterness.
          Cold is loss of heat. A thrill running down the spine is just from lack of heat; a loved face gone empty is just from lack of warmth. The concept of 'cold' is as abstract as love, as rootless as evil. We can capture it in ice cubes and air conditioners, in terse phrases set in austere tones, but it cannot exist without heat. The only way to attain cold is to take warmth and drain it dry.