It’s time to take the window screens down. It’s past the time when they will be needed and I can’t leave them up all winter to deteriorate. There are other things I have to do before winter really sets in but I’m procrastinating on those. I’ve no good reason for that. I think a great deal of it is a reluctance to admit that balmy weather is really over and that I must prepare for less welcome temperatures.

I suppose I’m never really satisfied. I recall that last January I complained—along with many others—of snow that piled up and temperatures that dipped below freezing. I’m sure I will do the same this coming winter. Last summer I complained just as loudly because it was too hot. It would be different if there were a possibility of finding a solution to the problem. As it is, about all we can do is complain. But then would we be happy with nothing to complain about?

Perhaps having things to complain about is good. First of all, it keeps us occupied and second of all it keeps us busy—some of us, anyway—trying to come up with ways to eliminate or at least make more acceptable all the things we complain about. The results of those efforts, devices or schemes to protect, prevent, modify or otherwise spare us the discomfort caused by disagreeable weather or other imperfections of life, provide a means of livelihood for many. And the sale of devices resulting from such efforts brings monetary rewards to many others.

But I am not one of those who are involved in such businesses. So it would be best if I cease my complaining and go out and bring in the window screens. Winter’s not that bad. Neither are the other periods of distasteful weather. But we can’t discount the benefits to our society of the poorer conditions in changing seasons. And we can’t discount the value of complaining about them. After all, if everyone were completely satisfied with all types of weather it would surely be bad for our economy.