For many of us, the longest conversations we have are on social media. It feels like we’ve lost the ability to make small talk with people in public. Don’t get me wrong, I realize there are some scary people out there, and when they come walking directly at me I am thinking the same thing everyone else is… “Please don’t talk to me, please don’t talk to me.”

On the other hand, most of us are just trying to get by and striking up a little casual conversation is a way to pass the time.

Until a year or so ago, I went wherever I could to get my hair cut fast and I could get in and out. And then a new barbershop opened not far from my house. I decided to check it out. It’s not always the fastest place, but I learn so much sitting and talking to the others it is worth the wait. Of course, most conversations revolve around the weather or the price of gas and sports on television; whatever the latest sport scandal has come up more than once.

I’ve also learned about local history and gained some insight into local politics as well. For instance, the very old building where my barbershop is located happens to have been a gas station many years ago. One of the older gentlemen sitting waiting with me remembered buying gas there when he was young and single. He thought it was about $.25 a gallon or so at the time. He said he could run his old Chevy on two or three dollars for the weekend back in those days. Of course, two or three dollars went much further than that it does now, too: literally and figuratively.

I’ve also had conversations about which local politician has been out drinking with other local officials or which one might be in trouble. Of course, those conversations are all heresay and no public official has ever done anything he shouldn’t…

An interesting observation, for me anyway: the owner of the barber shop should know better than to treat his barbers poorly. When you stand beside someone’s ears all day, the natural inclination is to talk. And if you feel like you’ve been jerked around, you are going to mention it. A lot.

It seems to me that people are less and less tolerant of each other and quicker to take offense than they used to be. I think this is because we don’t mingle with strangers as much as we used to. We only seek out people with similar opinions. And then we don’t understand why “others” don’t want to hear us rant. We used to understand that not everyone wanted to listen to us vent our spleens on a regular basis. That used to be called being neighborly and social.

I think I need a haircut. I’m curious about what’s going on around town..

This weekend we celebrate one of the more significant holidays in the world: St. Brigid’s Day on February 1.

Never heard of it? I probably should have said “Celtic world”.

St. Brigid’s Day began as an Irish pagan holiday called Imbolc, which was the beginning of Irish spring (the event, not the soap). As happened a lot, a Christian holiday was laid over top of Imbolc with the canonization of St. Brigid. In an interesting twist, for me anyway, I just discovered St. Brigid is the patron saint of Clan Douglas. Among other things, she is also the patron saint of mariners, printing presses, scholars, travelers and watermen…all things that are important to me. I didn’t know I had a patron saint.

Considering that many of the early settlers to Appalachia were from Ireland and Scotland, it’s a bit surprising that we don’t actually know more about St. Brigid and the Irish spring celebration. It celebrates the arrival of longer days and the coming end of Winter. It is a day of hopefulness.

Next Monday, of course, is the holiday that revolves around the gopher, but celebrates essentially the same thing. It, too, revolves around a religious holiday: Candlemas. This is the day that Jesus was presented to the temple, 40 days after his birth. Exactly how the day got associated with the weather, I have no idea, but a Scottish rhyme says:

If Candlemas day be dry and fair,
The half o’ winter to come and mair,
If Candlemas day be wet and foul,
The half of winter’s gone at Yule.

Combining that with a gopher came from the Germans as they considered the hedgehog one of the smartest animals around. If he saw his shadow on Candlemas…you get the idea. When German immigrants moved to Pennsylvania, they saw the gopher and decided it was essentially a cousin to the hedgehog and an American tradition was born.

Last week, I talked about SAD and feeling low because of the winter. Locally, this winter has been relatively mild and I’m not complaining, but I am ready for it to be over. I’m hoping next Monday is a nasty day so the gopher can’t see his shadow and we get on with it. Or, better yet, I think I’ll take the more positive attitude from St. Brigid’s Day and just say, winter is half over and spring is coming.

I’m ready for Spring..

One of the best Christmas parties I ever attended was in the middle of January. I was living in North Carolina at the time and an ice storm knocked out power for nearly a week. It hit about two days before the party was originally scheduled and there was no way to get it set back up before the holiday.

Rather than cancel it, the hosts decided to reschedule the party for January. It was a blast. It was exactly what we needed to offset the winter blues.

The run-up to Christmas can be hectic, even for people with the best of intentions. There are parties, shopping, church services and functions…not to mention potentially challenging weather. And then January comes and all we have left is the potentially challenging weather, long cold nights and not much else. And that makes us SAD. Not sad, but SAD. Seasonal Affective Disorder. Frankly, I think whoever came up with that name may have gotten a bit too cute. I mean, can anyone take you serious when you say “I’m sad”?

According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of Fall and Winter SAD include:

• Irritability
• Tiredness or low energy
• Problems getting along with other people
• Hypersensitivity to rejection
• Heavy, “leaden” feeling in the arms or legs
• Oversleeping
• Appetite changes, especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates
• Weight gain

Ummm, yeah. That pretty much covers everyone I work with right now. For the record, I work from home. Alone.

In severe cases, you can talk to your doctor. SAD is basically clinical depression brought on by the change of seasons. Don’t believe me? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published by the American Psychiatric Association, to diagnose mental conditions, considers it a real thing. The DSM 5 is also used by insurance companies to reimburse for treatment. If the insurance companies are willing to pay for it, there must be something there.

An interesting side note, while women are more likely to be diagnosed with SAD (this probably has more to do with the man’s willingness to go to the doctor, but that is a different discussion) but men tend to have more severe symptoms. Again, probably connected to a man’s willingness to go to the doctor.

There are some things you can do to improve your mood at home (according to the Maya clinic):

• Make your environment sunnier and brighter. Open blinds, trim tree branches that block sunlight or add skylights to your home. Sit closer to bright windows while at home or in the office.
• Get outside. Take a long walk, eat lunch at a nearby park, or simply sit on a bench and soak up the sun. Even on cold or cloudy days, outdoor light can help — especially if you spend some time outside within two hours of getting up in the morning.
• Exercise regularly. Exercise and other types of physical activity help relieve stress and anxiety, both of which can increase SAD symptoms. Being more fit can make you feel better about yourself, too, which can lift your mood.

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The start of a new year is when I take stock of where I am in life. Resolutions tend to be about what we want to change (weight, exercise, smoking), but I’m talking about assessing success.

For the record, I don’t think of myself as successful. Largely because that word has many different meanings to, well, just about everyone. Success can mean money or fame. But it can also mean doing what you love and enjoying life. I have none of the first, but pretty much all of the second. A few weeks ago, I got a really nice email from the mother of a girl I went to high school with. She told me she had a “vested interest in me”. I like that. It’s nice to know I have people in my corner rooting for me.

For a while now, I’ve been getting daily emails from Hugh MacLeod. He is a cartoonist that got his start drawing inspirational cartoons on the back of business cards. His business is called Gaping Void, Business Transformation Through Art. Each email includes a drawing and a thought. A few days ago, I received an email from him called “Keep Trying”. In the email MacLeod said “Success is about always moving forward. But it’s equally about paying attention to the basics. Not forgetting to laugh and love and appreciate what we have, even as we fix our eyes on new horizons.”

It is often easy to get wrapped up in trying to be “successful” without ever really thinking about what that means. I choose to keep moving forward, trying new things, failing and getting up and trying again, but I hope I never forget to laugh and love appreciate what I have.

I liked the reminder from MacLeod and thought you might, too..

I still vividly remember where I was and what I was doing.

I’m sure you do, too.

My phone started buzzing with that irritating emergency alert noise. I looked at it and was stunned to read the message. We couldn’t use our water for anything other than flushing toilets until further notice. I was confident they would get it all resolved in a day or so. It just couldn’t go on any longer than that. Could it?

My wife was sure it was going to take a while to get it all straightened out. Afterward, and to her credit, she never looked at me and said “I told you so”.

I recently read a really interesting article on the EPA Superfund program. It talked about how people had largely forgotten about the program and how it was now underfunded. Congress let the funding for the program lapse. The thing is, there are 1322 superfund sites across the country and another 53 that regulators have proposed for the program. While a number of those sites have been cleaned up and are now closed, many take constant maintenance as toxic chemicals continue to ooze from underground and have to be treated. How soon we forget canals that were so polluted they caught on fire or polluted ground that to be dug up and put in a specially-made landfill because of the barrels of chemicals literally in people’s backyards.

And those places aren’t somewhere else. One of the last stories I reported on as a newspaper reporter 20 years ago was the expansion of the Winfield Locks and Dam where the ground was so polluted from a rail car cleaning facility that the ground had to be incinerated before construction could move forward.

Did you know there are nearly 100 EPA Superfund sites in West Virginia? I was stunned when I looked it up.

But that was years ago. Things like that don’t happen anymore, right? The anniversary of the water crisis that gripped the Kanawha Valley is Friday. On January 9th, the water supply for the entire Kanawha Valley was compromised because chemicals were leaked into a river.

West Virginia is wild and wonderful and our greatest natural resource is the nature that surrounds us. Let’s not forget about that and let a water crisis happen again, or to anyone else..