The Weather - It`s all our Fault

We are obsessed with our environment.  I don`t mean the planet and melting ice caps, and the prospect of entire countries disappearing underwater, I`m referring to our immediate surroundings.  A change in a landscape often evokes comment, on the rare occasions we actually look close enough to notice something different, but it`s alterations in our personal `livingscape` that really get us going.  Changes from what we think of as the norm prompt endless comment that result in a kind of environment fixation.  It`s no surprise in many ways: what goes on within the range of our senses has an immediate effect on our lives, and it pays to take an interest in what`s happening close by.  But it`s the character of the surroundings in which we exist that is truly significant.  When you live in a truck for weeks on end, for example, the inside of the cab, its comfort, size and colour are important. If I get in any vehicle for the first time I look around and assess it for all these points.  If anything untoward happens to the inside of my cab I take steps to rectify the problem straight away. I don`t like a dirty floor, so I make sure I leave my work boots in a side locker, and I hate marks on the upholstery and dust.  As a result, I sweep out and clean it regularly.

We notice our close surroundings because they have an immediate influence on us as individuals. The surrounding weather, because it effects our everyday lives, is an important `livingscape` factor and as such gets a lot of attention. But there`s a big difference between the planet`s too hot and I`m too hot; it`s all about our weather, in other words, my bit of weather.  Every time the `immediate` weather is in the slightest way unusual – which is more often than not - we greet each other with a comment about it being too wet, too windy or too hot.  And by obsessing we create a problem; a problem with The Weather.  Unlike the inside of a truck, which can be changed, and a dust problem solved, the weather is unalterable.  We`d be better off ignoring it – remembering that for most of us, the weather, in all its forms, is just part of our surroundings.  You can`t change it, it`s just there, live with it.