Osler's Razor

This is what January brings in Minnesota: a high of -8. 

My friends in Texas shudder at that, but the people here think something is wrong if there isn't a deep cold snap. They are right, too-- without several nights below zero, invasive species move north and suddenly the birch trees or the walleye or something else that makes Minnesota so Minnesota-y is gone. The cold is purifying.

It feels that way to me, too, when I step out into the world and feel my breath freeze. There is this moment of being startled, and then a striking clarity. Everything is bright. Minnesota is cold, but it is also sunny, and that sun bounces off the snow and magnifies, so everything glistens. At night, the stars are sharply defined, and the background sky seems darker and deeper. 

I love the way that works, that it is scary to go out, but once you are there it is fascinating and wonderful (if you wore the right clothes, anyways). 

What else, what other beauty, does fear keep us from?