when the assault on reason, and the appeal to emotion
is constant, beleaguering, and belabored;
when the supremacy of the immediate reaction
is unchallenged by the forces of the almighty algorithm;
in an age when analysis and critical thinking
are dismissed and disparaged and reviled;
stopping to sit quietly, contemplatively,
to simply watch the snow fall against a backdrop of trees,
to attempt to define and craft an honest emotional response to such a moment,
is almost an act of rebellion.