...the lights went out fast...except
for the lightening-the landscape
bulging forth like a quick
lesson in creation...
...it was hard to tell
fear from excitement:
...As always the body
wants to hide,
wants to flow toward it-strives
to balance while
fear shouts,
excitement shouts, back
and forth-each
bolt a burning river
tearing like escape through the dark
field of the other.
Okay, I admit it, I love "weather movies." Throughout the opening scenes my body is torn between fear and excitement, and when the storm seems suddenly upon us, them, me, all of us, there is a release of tension. There, in the dark of the storm, is perfection, a flowing, an escape from the cognitive brain wondering how we shall live. It is even more so in person. To view through the day the gathering clouds and to hear the rumble amidst the pecking of the key board as I tune into the latest storm tracker reports, there is a shameful joy - how can looming disaster be so much fun? Yet is not disaster upon us every day in one form or another, offering us a brilliant flash of joy if we could just live the beauty? Gods and goddesses throw bolts from upon high so that we might see the glory within and without.
What truths do you see in storms, in disasters, and in your fear?
There is a dichotomy to storms. They bring rain to thirsty plants and sometimes rainbows. However their lightening can bring fear particularly to those who do nut understand it and know how to avoid getting hit by it. It has always fascinated me and I enjoy watching a good thunderstorm from the safety of a window. When a storm produces a tornado which cannot be avoided as well there is more cause for fear. Does that fear cause people to avoid living in places such as the flat prairies which experience more tornadoes? Even though statics would show that you are more apt to die in a car crash then a tornado, when even one person dies or is harmed by a tornado it is a disaster.
ReplyDeleteFlorida Atlantic University's campus has a large open space in the center. The campus itself is built on a former military airport so it is flat all around it. There is usually at least one person each year killed by lightening while crossing that large center area during a storm.
The university has a dilemma because that is where the burrowing owls live. They are so cute and no one wants to destroy their habitat to build something there. The burrowing owl is also the university's mascot, so even as the university grows I think the colony of owls is there to stay.