The next time you go out to your car on a freezing morning and you have a few extra minutes, try playing this little game with the elements.
Instead of scraping the ice off the windshield right away, while the car warms up, just sit inside the car and watch the spectacle of melting ice. Turn the heater on full blast, aim it toward the windshield, then sit back. You might want to sip a cup of coffee as you attend to this phenomenon. But do watch. Don’t be tempted to read or check your messages on your phone. This experiment is best when you’re paying full attention.
After what seems like an endless spell of waiting with nothing happening, when you’re just about to give up and slam back outside with your scraper and get this thing done right already… Just then you will notice that a slight shift is taking place in the ice barricade. It appears as a dim arc spreading across the bottom of the windshield. This arc slowly becomes lighter and thinner, and finally you will start to see the ice crystals melting in the path of the heat. They soften, they drip. Some of them catch hold of other ice particles and drift down the window like a collusion of raindrops. Others loosen their hold on the mass and float upward. You can watch the borders of the ice field slowly withdraw and the outside world slowly become known. Ice and heat, clarity and obfuscation, nature and technology.
It’s a visual concerto.