With all this rain, following all the heat this summer, it seems people can’t stop talking about the weather. But I think there is more to talking about the weather than just breaking the ice…
It reflects our connection to something bigger than ourselves.
Funny story to begin.
I was once with a multinational client who were meeting on MS Teams. To start with, they were talking about the devastation of the Ice Storms in the US and how bad they were. Then one European quipped, “That’s not the only ICE you need to worry about over there.” He got an “assertive” response from one of his US based colleagues sharing a view he wasn’t expecting. So much for good old British banter… To make things worse, someone joining late noticed the awkward silence, and, trying to lighten things up said, “Mmm, ok, ummm, shall we talk about the weather???”🤦
As an Aussie from Canberra, talking about the weather comes across as a weird British idiosyncrasy. Where I am from, the weather is fairly consistently dry and sunny, or at least used to be, so forgive me for holding the judgement: “What an inane thing to talk about…”
But actually, I realise the weather does matter: It places us in the context of the much bigger world we live in. Having been diving into ancient stories, including the Greek epics, humans often saw the world they lived as populated by big and mysterious forces, often pleading to the Gods and the Supernatural as part of that. They saw themselves not as Masters of the Universe, but as mortals in a world full of forces that defied control.
Now, thanks to human ingenuity, we can control so much of our surroundings. From the simple wall to air-conditioning units and windows with Nanotechnology that control light, we are constantly finding ways to protect ourselves from the outside world. But it is a fool’s errand to think we can be completely separate from the systems that give us life. Yet that is also the biggest vulnerability we have – that we are dependent on something we cannot control, as hard as we try.
The weather reminds of this on a daily basis.
And it is also very simple, very immediate. As a friend said to me the other day:
It was raining this morning, that bummed me out.
She was not talking about climate change, she was putting herself in the truth of her context.
Our environment, our surroundings matter, they impact us. Australians, especially those from the countryside stand further apart from each other – a reflection of the amount of space available to them. We build our houses far apart to let the air blow through and keep them cool.
In colder climates like the UK, it makes sense to huddle closer, to build terraced houses, to minimise how much one opens their mouth to keep the cold air out. When we look out at the weather and its 24 degrees (75F) we breathe easier, our day is different. Even if we only catch a glimpse of it from behind our desks.
Environment makes people behave differently. The weather shapes our day to day. And from there, it affects our culture.
Next time someone asks you about the weather, they are not just making small talk, they are connecting themselves to world of which they are just a small part – and that is an important recognition to make.