The Weather of the Heart

It's that time of the fortnight again! A fortnight is two weeks. This particular fortnight was three weeks long, but we'll skip lightly over that technicality. Usually these Round Robin things are every second Wednesday, so that's once a fortnight. I've probably never used this word before, except maybe as part of a joke. I'm making up for it now. Fortnight! Fortnight! Fortnight!

Where was I?

Oh, yes! It's Wednesday, or will be in half an hour. More than that, it's a Round Robin Wednesday! This week's topic, as suggested by Chris of "My Photographic Life," is "Emotions." Is giddiness an emotion? 'Cause I think I went on a little giddiness bender in the first paragraph.

I don't take a lot of pictures of faces, so here's what I've been thinking about on this one. There are a lot of metaphorical connections in popular culture between weather and emotions. For example, Dylan Thomas wrote a poem called A Process In The Weather Of The Heart:

A process in the weather of the heart
Turns damp to dry; the golden shot
Storms in the freezing tomb.
A weather in the quarter of the veins
Turns night to day; blood in their suns
Lights up the living worm.

Okay, so I'm not quite sure what he's on about. But Madeleine L'Engle has a whole poetry collection with the title The Weather of the Heart. It's one of a handful of her books I don't have, but thanks to Amazon I know what poem comes first in it. It reads, in part:

...That only you, my Lord, can see my heart
With passion's darkness tearing it apart
With storms of self, and tempests of unrest.
--Madeleine L'Engle, Within This Strange and Quickened Dust

Sure, emotion can rage like a storm in your heart. It can be anger, despair, grief, fear, anxiety, or several emotions at once, combining like thunder, wind and rain.


In any case, different kinds of weather, day and night, heat and cold, all represent different emotions. All evening my tired brain has been playing back a bit of that classic song, Stormy Weather...

Since my man and I aren't together,
Keeps rainin' all of the time.

I suppose you could also have a storm of hope and elation and the dawn of happiness. And who hasn't heard of someone with a "sunny disposition?" George Harrison's lyrics to Here Comes the Sun aren't just about the weather clearing up:


Little darling
The smile's returning to their faces...

and, more metaphorically:

I feel that ice is slowly melting...

If you don't know what that line's about, I direct you to a hit song by Foreigner.


And how about all those heroes that ride off into the sunset, and all those old travelogues that used to end, "And as the sun sinks slowly in the west, we bid farewell..."?



Sunset symbolizes peace and completion and satisfaction, the promise of a bright tomorrow. In other words, it's about happiness and contentment. It's also an excuse to post another sunset photo or two.

Can you hear me that when it rains and shines
It's just a state of mind
--The Beatles, Rain

Can day and night, heat and cold, sun and rain actually cause the emotions with which they're associated? I guess it depends on where you are and what you like, and whether you're already feeling a bit of that emotion. I grew up in metropolitan Syracuse, where it's cold and snowy and windy in the winter, muggy in the summer, rainy in spring and fall, and there are only 87 sunny days a year. Yeah, the lack of sunshine, dry days and mild temperatures can get to you after a while. But here in Tucson, where the Visitor's Bureau promises 360 sunny days (they're stretching the point, but only a little), people are happy when it finally rains. And not only people!

See? Tuffy is happy that it rained!


Me? Well, yes, I'm happy when it rains, too, in a way that I never would if I were still in Syracuse. But to return to the metaphors, I've been kind of flooded with stuff lately - and I'm feeling a bit drained.

Karen

Now go see what everyone else is doing for this Challenge. And yes, you can join in, too!

Round Robin Linking List:

Chris: My Photographic Life Posted!

Carly: Ellipsis...Suddenly Carly Posted!

Karen: Outpost Mâvarin Posted!

Amy: My Life And Pictures

Suzanne: Suzanne R's Life Posted!

TJ: Every Picture Tells a Story Posted!

Sara: Animated Seasons Posted!

Julie: Julie's Web Journal Posted!

Derek: Through Veal Eyes Posted!

Dorn: Through The Eyes Of The Beholder Posted!

Steve: Paparrazi By Proxy Posted!

Kat: Prima Luce Posted!

Terry: The Captain's File Welcome, new member!

Tammy: The Daily Warrior Posted!

_rRose: WAIT-NOT YET- Posted!

Valorie: RetrospectUSA Posted!

DesLily: Here, There and Everywhere Posted!

Deb: Sassy's Eye Posted x 2!

Technorati Tags: Photos, memes, Round Robin Photo, Emotions, Weather, Tucson