A foggy day

Moving from Iowa to Georgia had some obvious weather changes. Of course the most obvious was the standard for a warm day moving from thirty degrees to at least eighty degrees, but there was also the addition of fog. Fog doesn’t happen very often in the cold of winter, and therefore it doesn’t happen very often in the cold north. Now, living in Georgia I experience fog almost every day driving home from work. Fog is the most interesting natural phenomenon to me because of the very diverse feelings it can bring me to experience. The fog can bring feelings of calm, wonder, and even fear.

I always found it amazing how the lack of a sense can calm a person. For example, when you sink down in the tub just enough so that the water finally washes over your ears. When you're ears submerge completely you experience a rare and wonderful phenomenon we call quiet. The lack of sound is instantly comforting, despite the fact you are now much less attuned to the world. The first place I go to wind down after trouble is a dark room with very loud music. Fog is no different; the world is much less frightening when you can only see a fraction of it. I always find myself taking a deep breath as I stand in my driveway and look into the fog. Even though I cannot see anything past my mailbox, I find it strangely relaxing. I can hear the cars whizzing by on the street just beyond my field of view, but I cannot see what dangers they may carry or the looks passengers may have for me.

Eventually in my blindness I start to piece together the newly unknown world in my mind. I start to picture in my mind what could be just beyond that blinding haze. I can start to see the creatures bustling about doing strange things they would only dare do on a foggy day. My mind starts to wonder to the possibility of dancing squirrels, cows with lightning speed, aliens abducting cows at lightning speeds. The grass sparkles as it grows greener right before my blind eye. The sky is crystal clear overlooking a large area of faded gray. Raindrops are falling in midair from the fog to the ground. Does the light in the fridge stay on when the door is closed? Why would the world stay the same if it is cloaked in shadow?

Few things could make a person experience calm and fear at the same time as fog does. On a foggy day there is a small area around me that I can see clearly. It’s what separates me from my mind’s world of wonder. Standing still, the boundaries are clearly marked. I can see plainly the end of my sight’s circle. The mildew lying lazily on the grass and the stiff concrete below my feet is all well known to me. While moving through the fog it becomes much more dangerous, if that solid concrete were to fade just beyond that boundary of haze I could fall into an even deeper state of unknown. When other objects move from the haze towards me I can rarely stop from fearing what’s going to happen next. Watching the object slowly fade from an invisible sound to a clear image is breath taking. The seconds that pass as the image moves from smoke to solid seems like an eternity. Cars can make this transformation at higher speeds, making it in some ways much more frightening. You never know when or what edge of the circle something will come out of next. What’s even worse is I do not know what will soon fade into my small circle of reality.

Fog is little more than a natural phenomenon to some people. To me it’s more of a playground for my mind. We get very intent on knowing our world the very best we can, but what happens when that knowledge is stripped from us? In some ways it can be calming. If you can’t see your world then you don’t know the dangers that lie within it. In other ways, it can be wonderful. What’s great about anything you don’t know about is that there is always a discovery to be made. There is the subject of fearing the unknown, however. I think this must be the most dominate emotion in most people’s mind. Not just with fog, but in all aspects of life.