If Winter Comes, Can Spring Be Far Behind?

By Park Nahm-Sheik

This is P. B. Shelley’s visionary take on winter as the harbinger of spring ahead. I agree with the poet’s outlook on the seasonal changing of the guard depicted here in such eloquent verse. I buy into the underlying insight that nothing in life is all bad however dire it may seem at first. It sure is a privilege to always be able to look on the bright side of things.

Far from being a time of utter despair, frigid winter is when we can look forward and ahead to a beautiful spring over the horizon. Incidentally, I like the saying that “No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.” Alexander Pope (1688-1744) famously said, “Hope srings eternal in the human breast.” Deeply comforting is this inexhaustible capacity of ours to hope for better things down the road. No matter how dire the circumstances may be, this inborn optimistic streak in us will always come to our rescue and deliver us from the darkest abyss imaginable.

Surely, winter needn’t be a time of totally suspended animation. For it could be co-opted into a timely break to charge up and prepare ourselves to gently click into gear the upcoming season from the very get-go. Say, by spending snow days incubating meaningful action plans for spring and beyond. A winter retreat can also help birth such plans. As for the GIC, fireside chats and/or focus groups, on or offline, could be utilized to search for upgraded versions of its slate of responses to the most urgent needs of the intercultural community in and around the City (of Sunshine). True, we have no choice but to wait out Jack frost. Still, we can at least afford the leisurely midwinter luxury of waiting to be among the first to witness glitters of a light at the end of Old Man Winter’s long, long tunnel. Take heart. Before long, the winter of our discontent will be nearing the end of its reign of terror. It will soon be a thing of the past that belongs in the rear-view mirror only. The spring of our content is just waiting in the wings. Meanwhile, we may as well count the many blessings brought our way by General Frost. One of which is the joy of anticipating in the dead of winter the fragrance of spring hovering just around the corner. Snow days plus the Christmas holidays, the New Year’s Day and the traditional Lunar New Year’s Day also belong in the generous package of winter’s gifts. For good measure, outdoors afficionados can further count in the ever beckoning thrill of skiing down snowcarpeted slopes or climbing ice-clad rockfaces.

Sure enough, winter is already on our doorstep. Not to worry, though. Spring will soon be smiling upon us. Let’s all buckle down and press ahead. We will all not just survive but thrive as well. That said, shall we get ready to welcome spring.

The Author

Park Nahm Shik has a BA in English from Chonnam National University, an MA in linguistics from the University of Hawaii, and a PhD in applied linguistics from Georgetown University. He is a professor emeritus after a long and illustrious career at Seoul National University.