Am I just crazy, or do other people feel the same way I do? It’s just so hard for me to get in gear when it’s wet and cold outside. I know some people like Samuel Johnson, the dictionary king, think this is “folly.” I know people like Johnson say we should be able to grab hold of the reins and reject these feelings as nonsense. However, even if it is possible to get free of the “bad-weather blues,” it is still not easy. Sometimes, I’m just not up to it.
Of course, it is especially difficult if what I need to do is something that I have no energy for in the first place. For instance, suppose that I am to clean the baseboards in my bedroom, vacuum the living room, or feed the iguana. Doing things that I already hate to do becomes a near-impossible task when it’s raining and cold outside. It’s like Hercules and the Aegean Stables. I can’t remember whether the myth mentions what the weather was like when Hercules undertook to clean the stables, but I’ll bet it wasn’t wet and cold. If it had been, Hercules would have thrown in the towel on that labor.
After I’ve complained so much about this, you are probably not expecting me to make some lemonade out of the situation. Actually, there is one thing I know that can turn my attitude around, maybe not 180 degrees but at least 90. That is music. Not just any music will do. It has to be one special song. That one special song will grab me by the shoulders and start me dancing, dancing outside and dancing inside. Suddenly I can do the baseboards, start up the vacuum cleaner, and face the iguana. That special song for me is Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Streets.”
Johnson says it’s folly to let bad weather affect your mood. I say when the weather is bad “the time is right,” not for actually dancing in the streets, but certainly for listening to it. Not doing so is folly.