Weather

I have stayed in a country which remains warm & terribly sunny & hot for most part of the year. The winter is cold but then lets put things in perspective. When you say 4 degrees is cold, you never think of places which have temperatures ranging from -25 to -50 - But then, it is natural, why should you ?

After moving to Finland in the middle of winters & having seen the summers, I have observed one remarkable thing - i.e the changing disposition of people as per the weather. Now, its not a difficult observation but it does throw a few insights when you compare behavior changes across countries. It would be interesting to explore this a little more

In Finland, the change in disposition is directly proportional to the temperature & sunlight. If it is bright & sunny, which it is rarely, then people are happy & exhuberant. There are smiles everywhere & they actually check you out ( & no unfortunately, its not only me). There have been random strangers who have said hi & smiled at me & it feels great. Conversations are easier & one feels that the atmosphere has lightened up a lot here. In the winter, it is the opposite. Dark & gloomy weather brings with itself a sense of devilish quiet which reminds you of Bram Stroker novels. People look unhappy when they get into the bus & you are pulled into a sense of despondency that the world may be coming to an end soon

Compare to this my home country which is warm & sunny for most part of the year. I am kind of understating when I say warm & sunny - Depending on which part of the country you stay in, its mostly hot & humid. People's disposition is unchanged during the year. The sign of the first set of clouds does bring smiles of relief on the faces of people but it rarely leads to any dramatic changes in behavior which is not apparent to even locals.

What could be the reason for this? Why would people in one country behave differently in different seasons wheres the people from other country would not demonstrate perceptible changes in behavior? Most of us suspect it is based on sunlight which has Vitamin D & that sunlight is beneficial for immune system, blah blah blah. But what does Vitamin D have to do with serotonin, the chemical many ascribe to happiness in people? There has not been any proven research which states that more Vitamin D leads to more serotonin which leads to more happiness.So clearly, there could be some other reason to it which is slightly more human

I think its got to do with something very basic. We humans tend to appreciate things which are not present in abundant quantities. Familiarity combined with overexposure breeds contempt & boredom. Imagine if you have caviar everyday, then would you associate it with certain occasions or even look forward to having it with celebrations. You would more likely be completely bored of it & would probably stop eating it

Or that you can spend everyday in some exotic island in a luxury resort, how long would it be before you think of running back to the hectic & mostly chaotic civilization. You would yearn for the traffic jams, the queues in the supermarkets, the drunk guy in the bus etc- You would want to face those same boring humdrum stuff which you wish was not present in your current life.

If Finland was always sunny through out the year( which lots of people want), then maybe people would not be so warm & happy as they would take the sun for granted. They would seek the next thing & that may be a chimera to chase & that may be difficult to achieve. Imagine if you can see the sun shining throughout the year, that would be nice for a few days but then afterwards you would take it for granted & there starts the downhill descent towards boredom.

So I am kind of happy that the sunshine is here only for sometime in the year which makes people really appreciate it & it brings it with a sense of happiness which could help them cope with the winter.

But then, I could be completely wrong - So let me get some opinions from some Finns on this:)