Beyond the Margin

By Joe Spear

Hope, and psychological peace, spring eternal

We should never underestimate the psychological importance of spring in Minnesota.

It’s been a rough winter. January was colder than normal. Our psyche was whipsawed by hopes of spring, when the temperatures would rise to the 40s one day and -2 the next.

January’s average daily temperature was 10 degrees — about 4.5 degrees cooler than normal. Snowfall was 14 inches, 6 inches higher than normal.

Still, we look forward to the melting rivers that ease over the ice like syrup, the black and blue earth that steams with the sun while warmer breezes usher in the spring redemption.

The vernal equinox says spring was supposed to arrive March 20 this year. We have gained some three hours of light since the winter solstice, about 20%.

There’s a hint of pre-spring when the late-afternoon sun hits a soft patch of ice on a river and gives a warm reflection. Snow still sticks to trees but on the north side only.

And on the first day of 60 degrees, life goes crazy.

The hotrods, the Harleys and the Alumacrafts all take their cue from the warm spring wind that hails, on average, about 12.3 mph in Mankato, down from 12.9 mph in March, according to weatherspark.com.

The average daily April temperature rises during the month from 50 degrees to 65 degrees at the 44th parallel, named by Parsons King Johnson and Henry Jackson as Mahkato — the Dakota word for Blue Earth.

Ah, spring.

There’s plenty to take in during a Mankato spring. The Minnesota River. The Red Jacket Trail. The awakening of Front Street with its neon beer signs beckoning Labatt’s Blue and Special Export.

Franklin Rogers Park rises like a cathedral as the spring sun hits its all-season turf. And we know that all ends well at Caswell — the North Mankato complex that has hosted the legends of Minnesota state high school girls fastpitch softball players whose whispered screams you can hear when you walk onto the dormant field.

Entities emerge. The MoonDogs. The Legion teams. High school baseball. Track and field. Lacrosse. Sounds carry the spring air with them. The crack of the bat, the slap of the ball hitting the glove, the grunts and heaves and the joyous screams of victory, the smacking of the hard ball against a vulnerable body.

And we smile at the queued-up auto glass ads as the foul ball sails into the parking lot.

Ah, spring.

A fine article by Anthony Scioli in Psychology Today notes spring gives us feelings of hope, which gives our serotonin a boost.

“Spring and hope are intertwined in the mind, body, and soul. In spring, nature conspires with biology and psychology to spark the basic needs that underlie hope: attachment, mastery, survival, and spirituality,” writes Scioli, a professor of clinical psychology at Keene State College (the university system of New Hampshire).

And volunteer ice watcher Steve Schoeb looks for the ice-out date on Madison Lake, taking over a few years ago from his aunt Mary Buschkowsky. She watched the ice for more than 40 years.

By March 26 last year, ice-out was about a week away, and the median ice-out on the lake is April 5. There’s a certain anticipation of marking a date earlier than last year — than a decade ago. But prospects may not be good with the colder-than-normal January and February.

The added light and heat of spring also boost our psychological mood with light igniting the serotonin our body produces, which Scioli describes as “a major excitatory neurotransmitter in the nervous system, and the target of many antidepressant drugs.”

And there’s positive news for gardeners and farmers: “Among the indirect effects of spring on mood are increased exercise, and the physically related but psychologically distinct activities of gardening and farming.”

The endless forests emerge in spring. The valleys and ravines of Mankato and North Mankato guarantee a view of trees for most any house at most any window. This also cannot be underestimated.

Science tells us that trees give off life-redeeming oxygen. The more oxygen we have, the happier we are.

Color has a similar psychological effect. Flowers give us a choice of blue for cool, and the daffodils and tulips give us those psychologically excitable colors red and yellow.

Spring can be as unpredictable as weather. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows. Flying kites can be an activity that previews spring.

Sean Beaver of Great American Kites held an expedition with his 200 foot-inflatable kites on a frozen Clear Lake in Waseca Feb. 20 with temps in mid 40s.

Beaver had his business model down.

“We’re in the amazing memory business,” he said to The Free Press, in a mantra he repeated. “At our core, I mean, we fly kites — that’s not who we are. We’re all about getting the kids off the couches and their Xboxes and their gaming consoles and their smartphones.”

Scioli had his own view: “Spring is full of psychic potential because it satisfies the four basic motives that underlie hope.’’

To which Beaver can add: “Life’s not a dress rehearsal, man. You don’t get these days back, so you gotta finish with your fun meter on high.”

Amen to spring. Joe Spear is editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382. Follow on Twitter @jfspear.