Helping a Season

Last night I got a phone call from Winter.

I said, “You sound down. What’s going on?”

Winter said, “I think people don’t like me.”

I said, “Why would you say that?”

Winter said, “No one’s there to greet me when I show up. When Spring arrives, people are smiling and dancing. But when I come, nothing. If someone happens to notice me as I come into town, they give me the meanest looks. Last year a preschool kid gave me the finger.”

I said, “I read in Psychology Today that we’re fools if we let people’s current mood rule our self worth. If someone is feeling crappy inside, that’s what they’re going to offer up to us.”

Winter said, “Well, are you happy when I come around?”

I said, “No, I’m not. But I’m innately crabby. Last week I found a ten dollar bill on the ground and I worried that maybe a dog had peed on it.”