Vortical Flow

Latest creative writing piece by Dawn Adamson

Happy feet in flowing water. (Marquettemagazine.com photo by Dawn Adamson)

Need some fresh perspective on the frigid cold of winter this year that will warm up your face with a smile? Read the latest creative writing piece by Dawn Adamson, 

This winter has been brutal on the heart, the body, and the soul.  Apparently, we are in some “polar vortex.”  By definition:

In fluid dynamics, a vortex is a region within a fluid where the flow is mostly a spinning motion about an imaginary axis, straight or curved. That motion pattern is called a vortical flow.

Leaves in the snow on the Fitstrip Trail in Marquette, MI. (photo by Erica McMillan)

An imaginary axis, straight or curved?  The brisk 45 knots of wind off the lake when it was at it’s coldest, that made the weather report say, “Feels like -17.”  -17?  That’s not a temperature!  This is all imaginary.  We could say the windchill is an imaginary number that is spun from the polar vortex spinning around an imaginary axis.  0 -17i.  (Math nerd.)

Sometimes, I think people create their imaginary vortex.  It feels like life is spinning around you and then the temperature decides to warm up and now our equation is 40 + 0i.  Everything starts to melt and makes mud.

I never understood mud season or mud rooms until I moved to Vermont.  Mud season is serious.  It’s almost as serious as a winter storm.  The runoff from the mountain snow, melting, making mud, washing out roads.  You have to have a mud room here or tile or slate at your entrance unless you want mud all over.  (Why can’t I get Lola to figure this out?)

I took a slip in the mud today outside my front door.  Mush went my foot into this moist patch of mud and I fell on my…..

What does one do sitting in the mud, with groceries strewn around you and a brisk wind off the lake gusting into your face across the neighbors yard?

Here’s what you do:  This is imaginary.

“The spyder” (Marquettemagazine photo by Dawn Adamson)

And what’s with this straight or curved concept?  My road has never been straight, although I prefer it that way because I can get the Spyder up to 140 and scare my passengers.  Curves are better because you never know what’s around the next corner.  You can imagine what might be there.  You can hope for what’s there.  And if you don’t like it, just say it’s imaginary.

Happy feet without mud in the sunlight! (Marquettemagazine.com photo by Dawn Adamson)

So, as I sat in the mud for a bit, I remembered my favorite sunset on a warm summer’s evening.  I imagined feet not covered in mud, not cold from some polar vortex.  My feet were dipping into Lake Champlain in the water on a hot summer day.  My feet were kicked up in non-mudridden shoes……

Oh shoot, that’s the imaginary part right now.  You are sitting in mud.  The imagery fueled the imaginary.  Get up.  Reenter the vortex.  It is a real number.  There is no imaginary part.  I am waiting for the next curve minus the mud.  And always awaiting the vortex that has spun around me to spin into some imaginary plane.  Take your curved axis and I will stay on the straight one and drive fast.  🙂

Dawn Adamson featured writer for Marquette Magazine.

by Dawn Adamson

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