It began to snow an hour before I went out. I was fortunate to be able to stomp through many blocks of virgin sidewalk before their pristine whiteness was ruined by the shoeprints of others. Actually, I do like seeing little dog pawprints alongside human shoeprints, that is damn cute. When it comes to snow, for me the main pleasure is the sound it makes compressing under your shoes, what a satisfying packing sound that is, there's really nothing like it. I couldn't be any happier walking on continuous miles of bubblewrap.

One annoying thing about walking in snow in a city where it doesn't usually snow is that people who on any other day are more than happy to ignore your existence or even openly disdain you are suddenly apt to greet you warmly, a false weather-inspired friendliness which has nothing to do with you and everything to do with their own cheerfully unexamined hypocrisies. In my own grumbly fashion I was happy to trek through the white fields and empty streets, reveling privately in the novelty of seeing every overfamiliar urban surface hidden under a blanket of snow like some sin-absolving layer of heavenly innocence experienced before its inevitable corruption by the poisons of humanity, I certainly didn't need panting examples of such humanity coming at me from around corners smiling idiotically like we're all best friends now in our little Santa's Village. I had to break through one group of young men who were using this perfect opportunity to behave like the overgrown children they actually are, indulging in a somewhat over-testosteroned snowball fight, and as I passed through them one stage-whispered to his buddies that I was "not part of their clan" and must be attacked haha, whereupon I was provoked with words and small snowballs into engaging them, which of course I didn't. I hate being ganged up on, even in some ostensibly innocent or playful way, because everyone knows there is in fact no such thing as complete innocence where human beings are concerned, people are filled with animal aggression and other base motives at all times and in all situations whether they want to own up to it or not. To have everyone against you, in even the most obviously non-threatening manner possible, is still to have everyone against you, which means there is some element of hostility however sublimated, and being the brunt of such hostility has always set me on edge since I was a child. I'm sure the ancient source of such ridiculous sensitivity to the actions of benign mobs would be exposed in the therapeutic setting.

As I tramped further I cheered myself up by thinking of the immortal lyrics, poetry really, to that old song "Magic" by the group Pilot. It's not cheesy at all, except in every conceivable way. Let's sing together, shall we? C'mon!

Ho, ho, ho
It's magic, you know
Never believe it's not so
It's magic, you know
Never believe it's not so

How true, and profound. Kinda gets to you, doesn't it? I'll never believe it's not so, Pilot, I promise.