Winter is Coming

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One nostril runs, one is blocked. Winter has arrived, and you try to remember what it was like to have normally functioning nostrils. Eventually the nose settles, and you take it for granted. So, so quickly. You don’t remember how annoying it was with the one blocked, one runny.

It’s sunny outside but it’s cold. The part of the year where it’s impossible to know how to dress. Layers are removed and added, removed and added. Your hands are numb but you are also sweating.

We grieve for the evening the stretch. The one that pushed out the edges of the night not so long ago. It’s dark when we go to work, and when we return from it. Where is the sun? It only works half shifts now. It is needed for longer elsewhere. Its absence affects us.

The world has tightened. A breaking point. Everything that is said is scrutinized, cross-checked. People are afraid to speak their minds because of the potential backlash. A mental facism grips us. Even acknowledging this is a risk. But it is true. To get ahead you must fall in line. Does that not sound terrifyingly familiar?

Jon Snow and his Wildlings talked about a winter coming. A physical natural one, yes, but also a spiritual one. It has already begun here. Noses run but mouths do not. They are blocked. People are too afraid of their own neighbours to speak openly.

If we live in a world where there is no tolerance for getting things wrong, then we live in an intolerant world.