A Quick Historical Obseervation

by Crazy Ivan

First of all, this has absolutely nothing to do with Myachi, so if you're only here for the Myachi news, I can save you the trouble of going any further.  This is just a brief blog post about an observation I made while chatting with Kore on one of the cabin's many porches.

A heavy thunderstorm is rolling over the mountains tonight.  The horizon has been promising the storm all night with ominous flashes of lightening outlining the sea of jagged peaks around us.  The bugs have been taking shelter and the breeze was cold despite the heat of the day.  The rain began falling about fifteen minutes ago.

Being a fan of nature at her most chaotic, we took up on rocking chairs outside and watched the storm.  The radar promised it might last until 1:30 and both Kore and I commented on how comfortably we would sleep under the sound of the driving rain.  The incessant rap of the downpour would lull all of us to sleep as it always does.

And then a thought flashed across my mind in the manner of the approaching thunderheads.  It occurs to me how fortunate we are to live in the infinitesimal chunk of human history in which the sound of a raging storm is actually comforting.

I imagine my ancestors hearing the same sound and seeing the same dark omens in the evening and rushing out to cover windows and bring in livestock.  I imagine them sitting under leaking roofs and worrying about the condition of their fields if the rain continued.  I imagine their fear without the comfort that the Weather Channel's radar provides.  With no way of knowing how long the storm would last or how bad it would get, they likely worried themselves through many sleepless nights.

Now, keep in mind that at present I'm staying in a cabin where half of thing is hanging out over a mountain side on giant stilts.  Rain is pouring down and there's no concern of a landslide or other disaster because I'm fortunate enough to live in a time when we can generally trust the building codes to keep us from getting washed away with the storm.  Clearly for many this is still a concern, but in the USA and much of the world, the chances of being the victim of such a disaster without ample warning is far too remote to waste time contemplating.

Just thought it was an observation worth sharing.  Sorry for being so far off topic, as this blog is not normally a place for me to spew random mental byproducts, but I suppose I earn the right to do it once in a while... especially when the alternative was to pass out without blogging at all.

Promise to be back to something more Myachi tomorrow...