The soft nature of Southern climates

The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.

The paired butterflies are already yellow

with August.

Over the grass in the West garden;

They hurt me. I grow older.

- Ezra Pound

The River Merchant's Wife; A Lette (After Rihaku)

I've been asked hundreds of times what attracted me to Brazil. I wonder myself. The easy going culture was important, certainly, but the main factor was the climate, which I think contributes to the relaxed ambiance of the entire nation.

Those of us who live on the northern and southern horizons have climatological deadlines that rule our lives and impose on them a sense of time urgency. Winter looms, and we have to be prepared.

For the agricultural population, especially those with livestock, the entire spring and summer are dedicated to hay for the winter. The irrigating, haying and subsequent feeding the cattle are nothing but annual chores that produce no increase in productivity or financial viability. They're subsistence work, the same as washing the dishes or driving an empty semi back home. Our winters are recurrent, and we're either getting ready for them or suffering from them, neither of which produces any return.

When I was in Brazil this last time, I spent some days on the ranch of an old friend. He has two or three thousand steers (bulls, actually) weighing anywhere from 1,000 to 1,600 pounds. He ships a couple of semis a week to the packer thirty miles away.

Miguel's labor force consists of three people – two cowboys and a general employee. He has a medium-size tractor and a few small implements. That's it. A large part of his profit can be put into improvements and not the annual chores we spend our money on, while expecting no actual return for our labor and money.

The soft nature of southern climates sublimates itself into almost all facets of the tropical lifestyle. I lived near the 15th parallel in western Brazil and the rainy season there caused much less work and spending than does our winter.

No one likes deadlines, but the cold season is a deadline in itself coming in one icy leap from the northeast. But the rain in Brazil begins gradually in October, increases some during January and February then tapers off into June and July. Their climate mirrors ours, but the temperature where I lived rarely reached into the 100's. That heat can kill a person, but not as quickly as -40 degrees with a wind.

It's warm every day, with no freeze ups, ever. In Coxipó do Ouro, a friend

built his house using heavy chicken wire as exterior walls around two sides of his kitchen and dining room. He planted vines along the outside for evening shade inside. It's wonderful, with a lot of hummingbirds darting around the kitchen.

The constant warm weather permeates entire societies and affects their pace of living - to the frustration of gringos. There are no naturally made deadlines threatening from the future, so why worry? There's always tomorrow or a month from now.

In the rural areas and in smaller towns where crime hasn't taken over, the kids can play outside almost every day. This gives both the parents and the children a break from each other. The families aren't saddled with the high cost of winter clothes, and two pair of $8 flip flops will shoe a kid for a year.

For years I've thought that maybe the warm, easy going climates promote a relaxed attitude toward progress for progress' sake, compared to the angst ridden societies we know here in the U.S. I noticed in Coxipó that there was little concern for the quality and longevity of their work. Anything would do. And it did.

The people don't have the menace of -40 in their future, so urgency doesn't exist for them. The hurry and worry of daily life are created by humans, and humans will eventually forget or go away, whereas weather, when even the cold air is dangerous. People are just a nuisance.

The Brazilians themselves tell this joke: God had created the world, divided it, and settled each population in their respective country. The people looked around, became angry and sent a committee to talk to God.

They complained that the entire world, save Brazil, suffered various violent and damaging weather phenomena. In their petition they stated that other countries suffered, hurricanes, tornadoes, winters, and the rest, but Brazil had nothing bad within its borders.

God listened, then spoke, saying: Yes, I know that Brazil didn't receive any negative phenomena, but you haven't seen the type of people I put there. They won't need hurricanes and such.