I live in a part of the country where we talk a lot about weather a lot because it's both highly entertaining and can kill us. Like many places in the middle of the continent, we're famous for four seasons in one day. So often, I find myself wishing for the humidity to break, the rain to fall, the rain to stop, the cold snap to snap away, or whatever else that would bring me creature comforts. But we often just get a handful of days each year of pure pleasantness. Mostly it's

Just about everyone I know is carrying a backpack full of anxiety, dread, despair, or anger, sometimes weighing into terror or rage. We...