Last Wednesday the local world was shut down and everything about our lives came to a stop as we awaited a snowstorm.
Alas, or hooray, however you choose to think about it, it was a day of folly for weather forecasters, for school superintendents and for mayors and even the governor, who ended up for a short while out at the state bunker command post in Framingham.
Then came this Tuesday afternoon.
Without fanfare, the conditions grew worse and took on all the appearance of a snowstorm. It also had the ability to make a dangerous mess out of the afternoon rush hour.
Why, we wonder, was there no hysteria on the part of weather forecasters as we had experienced the week before?
Because common sense prevailed.
A snowstorm by itself in the modern world is an inconvenience, not a disaster.
With SUVs and four wheel vehicles, with cell phones and computers, with automobiles that have heaters and homes secure from the elements, is it any wonder we were able to survive Tuesday without an ounce of preparation or madness while last Wednesday’s hysteria led to not one inch of snow?
We’ve become a very soft society – and our fear of the snow proves it.