For the longest time, I didn’t understand why the weather was everyone’s go-to small talk topic. But eventually, I got the memo: It’s a source of mild but shared suffering. The weather affects all of us, yet nobody has any control over it.
Right now, outside my window, it looks like the perfect spring day is about to begin. The sun is out, and there are barely any clouds in the sky. But my voice assistant tells me today’s high will only be 14 degrees Celsius. A lot of rain is expected. Huh?! Who knows if it’ll come to pass—but if it does, it’d be far from the first time that a beautiful day took a sharp turn for the worse, or vice versa, for that matter.
In a way, the weather is the perfect metaphor for life: There’s no point in focusing on what it looks like, because it could all change in a second. You could win the lottery tomorrow or lose your job. Your son might get his first A or kicked out from school. But actually, the lack of control makes your life easier: All you need to do is play the cards you hold in your hand right now as best as you can. That’s it. Mission completed. And tomorrow, you do it again.
The rest? We’re all equally powerless about the rest—yet in that powerlessness, we are not alone. Humility is what should unite us, and that’s exactly what the sun, clouds, and rain set us up for. “Ahh, the weather. Yup. Nothing we can do about it.” It’s an easy and mutually disarming thing to agree on. Now we can talk for real. Just two imperfect humans chatting about their imperfect lives.
If you want a permanent lift to your mood, enjoy the weather. Not just whatever climate you get today, but the institution itself. Realizing our limits is, paradoxically, a source of power—and, just like the weather, it can make a bigger difference than you think.
