cold ain't cold anywhere but here

cold ain't cold anywhere but here

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

How do you compare one Mother to another?

Is cold temperatures on Mars comparable to cold temperatures on earth? Well my instructor back on earth in balmy Venice thought so; I heard him say so one night over beers with a dozen of us cadets near the Rialto.

Cold on earth is not like cold on Mars because Mars is a brutal lifeless place and all the optimists wishing to make it otherwise have one thing in common, they have never been to Mars.

One hundred twenty five below zero Fahrenheit is not all that unusual on Mars. I have experienced it. Your lungs refuse to take a deep breath from your oxygen tank and your skin recedes into your body. Your heart won't pump blood to your limbs even though you are protected from Mar's brutal cold by the latest life suit.

 Mars  receives 50% of the sunlight as Earth, only the Sun can warm a human. Artificial suits, simulated warmth and training on Earth cannot prepare a space explorer for his first few months on Mars.

Was your first broken heart the same as someone else's? When you first saw you first child's soul in their eyes did they seem like just another baby? Cold on Mars and Earth's record cold temperatures are not comparable.

The only training that can prepare one for the brutal life stifling cold on Mars is being there. Triple duty pay sounds great when listening to your Space officers lecture at a café in Venice, Italy. What do they know. Don't take advice about Mars from anyone who hasn't been there.

Cold ain't cold anywhere but here, and here is desolate, lifeless Mars; living as a geology miner for a two year sentence 800 earth miles South of equatorial central. Cold is cold just on Mars.