Physical Environment Changes The Thinking

Several events recently have reminded us how the physical environment shapes one’s outlook on life. Many factors that we view as “set” are really comparative in nature and are determined by our environment. I offer the following examples.

Living in a climate where the temperature normally varies by 10 degrees and on extreme days varies by 14 degrees from the hottest to the coldest can totally reshape your thinking about “hot” and “cold”. Monday we had a “cold” and rainy day. It was about 70 degrees with rain and breezy conditions. I was glad I had put on a long sleeved shirt. I didn’t laugh quite as hard at the locals for wearing heavy jackets most of the day. I also begin to feel some discomfort as we approach 80 degrees on other days. And 82 degrees is just plain bad news.

In Florida we live on totally level land. Here we are surrounded by mountains which on clear days show us snow-capped peaks. We don’t know the definition of level and rugged any more. Readers in northeast Iowa might find it strange that we consider Allamakee County as “flat land” now.

The third example has to do with rain. We live in an area that averages just short of a half inch of rain every day. We recently had three days without any rain. We began to refer to that time as our “dry stretch”. The definition of “normal” has now come to mean rain some time in the past twenty four hours.

And finally, the physical climate explanation for health problems is alive and well in a different way here. A cold with a runny nose can be blamed on a severe change in temperatures from 80 to 70 degrees. The body can only tolerate so much, you know.