Whatever the weather...

Questionable Weather

“Whether the weather be fine,

Whether the weather be not,

Whether the weather be cold,

Whether the weather be hot,

We’ll weather the weather,

Whatever the whether,

Whether we like it or not!”           Mamarocks

         Oscar Wilde once said, “Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” I’ve no doubt he was right, but I have to tell you, whatever is going on with the weather is just not right. Yesterday, on January 24^th, I had to put the air conditioning on in my car. The tulip trees, forsythia and japonica are in full bloom. Jonquils are opening. While beautiful, having spring flowers in January is not good, y’all. Even in the Deep South.

         People around here say, ‘Oh, just enjoy it’, and truly, that’s all we can do. I remember Alaska just a few weeks ago with more than ten feet of snow and heating fuel running out. I’m thankful not to be there, even though I would have loved seeing the Northern Lights at their glowing best this week. We, however, had eight tornadoes through Alabama earlier in the week and more severe weather is forecast for today. It does not bode well for the actual spring foul-weather season.

         There is nothing that puts me in touch with my frail humanity quite as quickly as watching a funnel cloud bearing down on my city. No matter how smart, or feisty, or well prepared I may be, it is only the luck of the draw that spares me and takes my equally good-hearted neighbor. Nothing I have done, nor ever will do, determines my fate. In the end, nature is an impersonal force, and not the will of a supernatural deity. God does not cause it, and cannot stop it, and no amount of human summoning will turn it one way or the other. That’s why it chafes when I hear people say, “Well, the good Lord spared me today,” when there are children and old people dead in the debris, and lives and livelihoods destroyed all around them. We need to think how insensitive that statement is before we blurt it. It is enough to say, simply, “I’m thankful to still be here.” I guess I’ve ‘gone to preachin’ but sometimes you just have to tell it like it is. I hope wherever you are today, the weather is fine and seasonally appropriate.

                                  In the spirit,

                                  Jane