Awesome Dude

Well, AOL, hopeful isn't even close. Let's go with Thunderstruck. Is that one word?

 

A bright sunny day, not a cloud in the sky, no wind to speak of. How boring! There are a few of those kinds of days around here, but thank goodness not many.  I like a day with some character, and this one is certainly jumping into that category. This area ranks second to South Florida in Lightning Strikes. I'll bet we beat out ol' Lake Okeechobee today. Starting about 10 a.m. there were some beauties, the kind you actually see drilling holes into the ground. Huge roars of echoing thunder follow. I get the chills when I hear and feel them. I know you are supposed to run for cover when lightning gets close, but I get mesmerized. And its not just lightning that puts me in a stupor.

We are on the edge of tornado alley here. On more than one occasion it's been my job to stand in front of a camera near a tornado and tell people to take cover. I've chased them in news cars and helicopters. I've covered the destructive aftermath, and sad circumstances imposed on the victims. But I also have a framed still picture of a tornado that touched down less than a mile from my house. I was supposed to be in the basement when that picture was taken, but there I was engrossed with the power of nature. I didn't want to miss a beat. 

A former student, Michelle Gutierrez has a daughter, Amaya, who wants to go to Disneyland but not Disneyworld. That's because Amaya saw on television what damage a hurricane can do. Amaya should know that the only reason she knows that is because some unfocused, irrational, gibbering  news person (like me) was stupidly standing there in that hurricane talking about how dangerous it was. One hundred ten mile per hour winds are a bad hair day guarantee.

Most of the time reporters are assigned those stories without free will being an issue. But many a journalist will be out there voluntarily defying good sense. 

Growing up on the West Coast we had many a relative refuse to visit because they'd heard an earthquake could hit, and California would fall into the ocean. Fresh from a college geology class I used to remark, " the San Andreas Fault is a slip fault which means the land is moving horizontally, not vertically.  Instead of falling into the ocean, Los Angeles will some day be adjacent to San Francisco which many feel will be a worse fate than falling into the ocean."

That's a little more meaningful if you know the competing cultures of the two cities.

I like earthquakes because they are the most frightful, awe inspiring, humility producing events on the planet.  You cannot run from an earthquake. If you ever need a definition of fate, stand in an earthquake. If you just lose a few dishes the experience is exhilirating, and you don't need an "E" ticket to get on the ride. If you ever want to see a mass of strangers instantly  become intimate soulmates, stand where there is an earthquake.

I've not been in a Tsunami, and like that earthquake, if I am some day,  I just want to lose a few dishes. But I don't know if you caught this. I didn't right away.  Did you notice that the warring factions in Sri Lanka, and Indonesia kind of took a break to reassess their missions?   Nature becomes the common enemy, and we are all at her mercy. We are powerless. Our ambitions are fruitless. Envy, and hate, and lust for power become moot. We are all put in our place. We might just as well get along for a while.

Amaya, don't be afraid. No place is perfect. And no matter where you are, in the words of that great 20th century philosoher Jerry Lee Lewis, " there's a whole lot of shakin' goin' on! "

And I think that beats a bright, sunny, cloudless, windless day, any day.