Wallace Steven's "The Snowman" and the DC cult of productivity

The Snow Man
by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Since we're having our first real snow day of the winter, I felt compelled to post the above poem for a couple reasons. Foremost, I was an English major. Our nerd-dom could rival that of Lord of the Rings fans and a pocket protector salesman combined. Most of us keep this under wraps, due to a desire to lead normal lives, but its the truth. I generally try to suppress that fact that I know a relevant poem for most occasions. The prettiness of snow must be overriding my embarrassment.

While everyone takes something different out of a work of art, my lasting impression of this poem comes from "[beholding] the nothing that is." In short, when a whole landscape gets covered by snow you can stop noticing all the things that have been taken away — leaves, warmth— and think of "nothing" as its own substantial concept.

Without making any "in our fast paced modern world" generalizations, I think there are a lot of people in DC that might benefit from reading this poem once or twice. In honor of the weather, I propose a challenge to the TNG readership: Today, why not spend half an hour doing nothing?

Don't check your iPhone or blackberry on the metro today after work. Don't apologize to anyone for having spent the weekend on the couch. Take half an hour to stare out the window of your office and wish you were outside... not that you aren't all doing that anyway. Combat the notion that everyone in this city measures your worth by how you spend your time.

I don't bristle at the "what do you do" question like some of my friends — before I moved here I counted "what's your name, where are you from, what do you do" as my three icebreaker questions —but there is something to the theory that everyone in DC is serving some sort of cause. Whether its your life's passion (like fighting animal cruelty) or a means to a paycheck (like accepting a job at the state department because it pays well) there are large sections of the district that are actively or passively supporting an Important Cause.

And this isn't necessarily a bad thing. There is a general buzz around DC of people who care about what they do. Artist or accountant, there are many local folks that see a grander plan for their lives than just clocking out and going home. Compare this to a city like Philadelphia that, in some ways, has more of an aimlessness to it. Both vibes have their advantages, but DC's is more suited to the life I want to live.

The problem comes when a person gets the impression that every hour of every day must be filled with purposeful tasks. How dare you watch TV when human rights are at stake? How dare you take a walk in the park when emission levels are rising? Worst of all is the "pissing contest of important causes," when a person decides that what they have dedicated their time to trumps every other social dedication.

I see this most in the gay community. A backlash began at the height of the prop 8 protest. People began to question why all our attention and resources should go to granting marriage privileges when ENDA, hate crimes acts, DADT and number of other important issues remain unresolved.

The gay community is not one man in a fedora operating a switchboard. It is a large network of people of people with different beliefs, causes and backgrounds who are united by a simple desire to be who they are, and practice as they want to, without harassment or persecution.

I think that marriage can be legalized without jeopardizing the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. One person can fight for ENDA while another raises money for sex workers and a third gets a good nights sleep. It's not either/or.

So I hope that everyone can balance the things that keep them busy with the things that make them happy. And that their shoes stay dry today as they wait for the bus.