Minnesota’s Harsh Beauty
Cold Wonder
It was so cold. Why would anyone live here? I had heard, of course, that it would be cold. It
made sense that it would be cold. I had listened to the advice I had been given
and had brought a lot of winter gear. I had convinced myself that I liked cold
weather, so even if it’s bad for some people, it won’t be so bad for me. I had
arrogantly thought that because Utah has some pretty cold weather, that I could
handle whatever nature would throw at me. I was prepared for the worst, except
I wasn’t. Why would anyone live in Minnesota? I couldn’t wrap my head around
it.
My car
wasn’t even that far away, but it was taking an eternity to get there. Time was
slowing down, freezing. I was wearing two coats, both too thin by themselves,
and only just adequate when paired together. I was wearing two shirts and
thermals. I originally had thought that I wouldn’t need a scarf; I didn’t want
to wear a scarf, but I was wearing my scarf. I had learned about myself that I
can’t handle having my mouth and nose being covered at the same time, even by a
scarf, so my nose was probably turning blue. I had a beanie pulled over my
ears, but my glasses left a small opening which the wind seemed to target. I
had heavy duty gloves on, but my fingers were still numb. I had boots, which
worked to keep the snow out, but couldn’t stand against the cold. Why would anyone live here?
I reached
the car, looking forward to the heater within. I opened the door, briefly
looked behind me, and stopped. It was dark and snowing. The snow covered the
ground, making everything white. The sky was black and empty, but the ground,
illuminated by street lights, was pure and defined. The trees lining the
street, with their snow covered, leafless branches, stretched into the
blackness. It was as if the light were fighting away the oppressive darkness,
but could only do so much against its weight. I left the car behind, walked to
the center of the road, and pulled out my camera. Maybe this is why people live
here.
Life in the Heat
Summer in
Minnesota is a curious thing. Partly because many Minnesotans have already
given up on ever being warm again a few months before summer starts, and partly
because it changes Minnesota so completely. Winter is cold, white, and dry.
Summer is hot, green, and wet. In winter, the skin on my hands would crack and
bleed because they were drying out and freezing. In summer, I was wet again
five minutes after drying off from the shower because of the humidity.
Before going
to Minnesota, I had never felt what humidity on a hot summer day feels like.
It’s awful. Utah is a desert, it gets really hot there, especially in the south.
Minnesota doesn’t normally get above ninety degrees, though there are extreme
days where is gets a bit above one hundred. The ninety degrees in Minnesota is
far worse than the hottest days I experienced in Utah. Humid heat clings to the
skin and laughs when a person seeks relief in the shade for there in no respite
in the shadows in Minnesota. I remember my surprise when the sun set and the
temperature didn’t go down. It stayed hot for hours because of the humidity.
The only days that weren’t swelteringly hot were the days that it rained.
It was sometime in my first Minnesotan summer
that I finally got over my discomfort and noticed what had happened to the
landscape. It was green. It was a deep, vibrant, green. I had never seen plants
look so alive. Minnesota has a lot of plant life; there are trees everywhere.
Every street is a green tunnel. The trees are massive and their branches are
full, nearly covering the sky. There were trees in Utah, even big ones, but
they didn’t look like this. They lacked something in Utah. Their green wasn’t
as vivid as the green in Minnesota. Utah is brown and drab in comparison. The
humidity became much more tolerable if it meant that the trees could look like this.
Flooding
I was living
in a tiny town in Minnesota called Aitkin, pronounced like bacon without the
‘b.’ I stayed in an apartment with a friend of mine and two more of our friends
were sleeping over that night. It was a small apartment so it was cramped, but
it was only for one night. During the night I woke up several times to flashing
lights. A fierce lightning storm was raging outside. The sky was lit up more
often than it was dark. I didn’t think anything of it.
We woke up
to find that the storm had been far reaching. Duluth, a city over one hundred
miles away, had flooded overnight. Entire parking lots were submerged, with
only the roofs of cars visible. Huge sink holes had torn away roads. All routes
to Duluth were closed from every direction. The problem was that my two friends
lived in Duluth. They looked up possible paths and found none. They were
trapped in Aitkin.
Aitkin was
downriver from Duluth, and even as far as it was, it was still flooded. The
river ran through a park that was now completely underwater. A campground on
the other side of town was also gone. As the days wore on we measured the flood
by using a bench. On the first day we could still see its seat. A week later
the seat was underwater. Slowly after that the water went down.
On the
second day of the flood my two friends finally discovered a way to get to
Duluth. They had to go at least eighty miles out of the way to get there. I was
glad when they were gone. I didn’t mind them being there, but my apartment was
not meant for four people. It could barely handle two. I don’t like crowds nor
am I comfortable trying to find things to do for four people in a small town
going through a crisis. My two friends had insisted that we do something, that
despite the flood we were not going to just sit inside all day. I was
completely stressed out the whole time they were there.
As the water
rose over the next few days several businesses were in danger of being flooded.
A garden shop was already had two feet of water throughout the entire building.
The owners of the carpet place across the street from the garden shop were
desperately trying to place a sandbag barrier around their building, but
couldn’t do it alone. A local catholic congregation offered to help. My
roommate and I heard about it and offered to help as well. We filled bags with
sand and tied before handing them off to someone who would lay them down. After
we had built a sizeable wall someone brought out boxes of pizza. After all the
hard work, that was some of the best pizza I ever had.
The leader
of the group that had volunteered to help build the sandbag wall was impressed
with my roommate and me. Not only had two twenty something boys offered to do a
lot of hard work for nothing, but we also had an incredible work ethic. At
least, that was how he saw it. To be honest, it had been the most fun I had
ever had in that little town.
Green Skies
Storms come
suddenly in Minnesota. The sudden ones are the dangerous ones as they are often
accompanied by tornado sirens. While I never actually saw a tornado while I was
in Minnesota I did hear a lot of tornado sirens. A friend and I were walking
down the street with no real worries when is started raining. It didn’t
gradually start raining, the moment the rain started it was coming down in
sheets. A siren went off, and as it was the first time I heard one, I didn’t
know what it meant. Before we could react a woman opened her door and shouted
at us that there was a tornado warning in effect.
Luckily for
us we were nearly at our destination. We ran for another friend’s house, and as
we ran I noticed something completely bizarre. The sky was turning green.
Everything seemed to take on a green tint as we ran. When we finally found
safety I asked the friends I was with about it and they acted like it was no
big deal. I didn’t want to seem strange so I shrugged it off as well, but I was
in turmoil in the inside. The sky turned
green! This is a huge deal! How are you not all freaking out! Why have the laws
of physics betrayed me?
I saw the
sky turn green several more times after that, and it always happened when there
was a tornado warning. I was struck with wonder every time. Why had no one ever
told me that something this incredible ever happened? How had I not known about
this? I told my family back in Utah about it and they didn’t believe me. Such a
thing couldn’t happen, for the sky is blue and will always be blue. It took a
tornado to teach me that the sky can be green.
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