| In recent weeks when I have walked out the door in the morning I have often been struck by the feel in the air. The temperature, the humidity, and the smells, all taken together make a powerful impression. Some days it’s just a general feeling, but other times it evokes a particular place, like England or Southern California. Usually I only notice the feeling for a few seconds, and then it’s gone. This is an instance of a pervasive phenomenon in human existence which is called hedonic adaptation. Applied to larger things, it explains why, some time after a salient delight or tragedy, people tend to return to the same level of happiness or discontent that they felt before. We quickly get used to almost anything. (There was a good Hidden Mind podcast about this recently - Here's a link) I’m not alone in being struck by the feel in the air when I step outside. When the girls were babies, sometimes they would wake up crying in the middle of the night, and if nothing else calmed them, I would take them out and walk them around the block. The change in the atmosphere would distract them, and they would stop crying immediately. Once, when I was taking Renana out for a walk at three in the morning, I came across one of our neighbors mowing his front lawn (with a hand mower). When I asked why he was doing that at such an hour, he confided that he was working out his upset at his wife’s unexpected pregnancy. The air at this time of year has two special features. One is the odor of the etrog, the fruit that we use in the rituals of the holiday of sukkot. In the picture is the bright yellow etrog I used this year, along with its shrivelled and blackened predecessors of the last decade. But also these last warm days are a reminder that, for all our complaints about the foul winter weather we endure, Chicagoans have many months when stepping out the door brings pleasure. |
| Created on 27 September 2021, updated on 7 October 2022 by Samuel Ethan Fox |