Weather - The Great Equalizer

This winter weather is anything but normal.  Have you noticed that the weather doesn't care who it picks on?  Whether you're rich or poor, down on your luck or on top of the clouds, no matter your political affiliation, these small details mean nothing to the weather.  It  operates on its own time frame according to its own set of rules.  It may come without warning or give us a few hour notice.    It can blanket and paralyze cities and towns with a foot and a half of snow, immobilizing everything in its path.  It can rain down ice, shrill like a banshee as 40 mph winds savagely kick up and whip the swirling snow into torrents of stinging wasps that assault your face until it is numbed into submission.  It can bring traffic, cities and towns to a standstill.  It can make you wish for happier days like you've never wished before.  It can bring misery, drudgery and despair as week after week you are confronted with more snow to shovel, more freezing rain sleet and ice to deal with.  Weather is the great equalizer.  We may all share different opinions on many subjects, but when 3/4 of a country is confronted with the nasty side of winter it can bring all of us to our knees.  Maybe that's where we need to be right now and why we're experiencing a winter that is showing no mercy, that is relentlessly pushing us to the brink.  Maybe this winter weather is bringing us a message.  Maybe this winter is forcing us to take stock of ourselves and our blessings.  This winter weather is forcing us to confront an undeniable truth that there are forces outside ourselves we cannot control.  Maybe this winter the weather will bring all of us together, somehow.