On a cold day recently when the sun was setting early, I sat on a plastic chair outside a cafe eating soft-serve ice cream. I shivered, and the child near me shivered, but spooning the sweetness into our mouths did something. I thought about how I associate ice cream with summer-time fun, but consuming something cold and sweet on a cool day subverted my sensory expectations, even briefly. I felt like I was perceiving the gloom around me at a remove.
There’s so much I’ve been thinking about and worrying about. What to say this November? What to do?