Let The Hard Rain Fall

On one of my trips lately, I watched a local TV News anchor exclaiming what an exceptionally wet Winter they'd had.  Actually, that newsman was complaining about it.

It's true this Winter, and most especially the Spring that followed, has been wetter and snowier than typical, in some places more so than in any time since recording started in the 1890s.  But is that surprising?

Between the let's-not-call-it-Global-Warming and the self-inflicted human tragedies (Boston; West, Texas; collapsing sweatshops in Bangladesh; Newtown), there has been plenty of reason for the World to Cry, if you will.  Yes, I did just say that very unscientific thing:  there is something about this natural place we inhabit that picks up and reflects, and right now what it is reflecting is reason enough for lakes of tears, whether rained hard from the heavens or piled frozen in snowy drifts.  We have earned a blizzard of symbolic sorrow.

And then there is still the scientific argument of Let's-Call-It-Global Chaos. Today it is raining in Southern California not even a week after a blazing hot, dry, windy spell sparked wildfires.  When those fires broke out, Wisconsin was being blasted by a near-blizzard. Very Chaotic indeed.

But Unseasonable Rain sometimes is needed.  The rain today has put an end at least for a while, to fears of more fires; and helped extinguish what is left of the ones already burning. 

Rain also helps us mourn and reflect, perhaps leading to better decisions and behavior.  At times when we humans are behaving our worst, a big dousing may knock sense into us.

Let The Hard Rain Fall while it may.