Mark Helprin: The Fire We Tend Against Winter - WSJ.com

Since the beginning of time a potent and merciless ally of starvation and disease, winter has carried away hundreds of millions. As those who in winter have lived in a city under siege or through a military campaign commonly attest, the cold is the worst torture. I came to understand a small part of this when 40 years ago in the mountains of northern Israel I would wait through winter nights for infiltrators, and by 4 a.m., semi-hallucinatory, my heart beating so slowly it seemed about to stop, I thought that being shot might actually be an improvement in my condition.