Spring melancholy

I have been fretting about spring, or, more specifically, the Hong Kong spring. You see, the endless days of gloomy, wet and cold weather does hijack one’s mood.

Spring can also be likened to Easter. A stretch of dark and dismal time which began with the last supper in which Jesus foretold his betrayal by one of his disciples, building up to his arrest and trial and culminating in his epic death.

I do know that there was also his resurrection – his glorious triumph over death. I know. I also know that behind those clouds so thick you can’t cut through with a knife, there is a sun so bright you cannot look at it directly, but I have chosen to subjectively reject its existence. So dejected have I been by the wretched weather.

Spring is around the corner

I first learned the lesson that one shouldn’t taking everything school textbooks say for granted from experiencing the Hong Kong spring. According to my primary school textbooks, spring is a welcoming season because it brings warmth and life back to the land. But my experience since childhood has always been that spring is a wretched season – an endless stretch of gloomy, wet and cold days.

Of course, many people have different ideas, seeing spring as welcoming not only physically but also spiritually. In a recent article called “Why spring is the season of hope”, Anthony Scioli writes that none of the other seasons can match the bounty of hope that greets us in the spring. According to Scioli:

“Spring calls us back to nature, fills our sails with warmer winds, soothes our weary bones, and lifts our spirits. Spring is full of psychic potential because it satisfies the four basic motives that underlie hope.”

The four basic motives he refers to are “light and heat”, “a bridge”, “a healing agent” and “a harbour”. Scioli contends that just as we liken hope to these, so too do we compare spring with them.

In support of this notion, Scioli cites this quote from Bern Williams: "The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created spring."

But I have to say that, for Hong Kong, viewing spring as such is a borrowed idea.  We are near the end of spring now. To me, this is the time to celebrate.

L'hiver

l'automne