About

Welcome to Winter in Milwaukee! I am Milwaukee’s mostly-self-proclaimed Ambassador of Snow 🙂 This is my page for sharing excitement about snow, and about a range of activities we can enjoy in Milwaukee from December through February.

I believe people in Milwaukee could do a better job of appreciating what we have to enjoy during winter. I want them to love their place. I want to help people who are down during winter to find things to appreciate about it.

I believe that a more sustainable relationship of humans to nature will require us to cherish the places we live in – not to measure our place against the standards of some other place and find it wanting. Winter here provides opportunities which other parts of the country don’t have, and a city in this location should figure out how to take advantage of those. I want to encourage people to think of Milwaukee as a place to visit, and to stay in, during winter!

Why am I praising snow?

I praise because too often I hear people not appreciating it. On weather forecasts, a lot of energy is spent fearing it. Yes, it causes inconveniences, and occasionally significant problems.

But I want people to take a look, to appreciate what opportunities it offers.

I praise because snow reflects light. It adds structure to the air. It makes me want to play. It brings me joy and energy. I am amazed to see the sky turn into shapes. To feel the air made physical, brushing against me. To see the night’s floor gleam, and sparkle.

A snowstorm is a special moment in time, it is a special experience to be outside when snow is falling. For those less daring or crazy, one can check out what a storm leaves behind. The landscape is transformed a lot by coatings with snow. There unusual aesthetic experiences available during winter. Look closely, watch the changing arrangements of snow. And you’ll notice some distinctive patterns.

Snow provides opportunities we don’t have at other times of year. Small children love to take advantage of these opportunities. Adults… seem to have a harder time doing so. But hey – there’s simple fun to be had. Snowballs! Throwing snow and watching the wind blow it around. Sledding. Observing.

 

For more of an introduction to the goals of this website, see my favorite posts at: https://milwaukeesnow.com/category/highlighted-posts/ – “What does winter weather have to offer Milwaukee” is a good place to start.

 

You can contact me at ambassadorofsnow@gmail.com

Along with this blog, my other writings include “‘I’ve Seen It Raining Fire in the Sky’: John Denver’s Popular Songs and Environmentalist Memory,” included in this volume:
http://www.amazon.com/Resounding-Pasts-Essays-Literature-Cultural/dp/1443800325;

Reviews of green culture in Milwaukee at:
http://www.examiner.com/green-culture-1-in-milwaukee/jeff-filipiak
http://susceptibletoimages.wordpress.com/2010/05/08/looking-at-sustainability-in-the-miad-senior-show/ ;

and “The Work of Local Culture: Wendell Berry and Communities as the Source of Farming Knowledge,” Agricultural History 85:2 (Spring 2011)

Thanks for reading
— Jeff Filipiak

 

 

 

 

© Jeff Filipiak. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jeff Filipiak with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.