Thunderstorm Perspective

My work­outs at the weight room are most enjoy­able at about 9:00 PM. It is not crowded then. Most peo­ple are at home or already turn­ing in for the night. The only prob­lem with a late work­out is that you are not likely to get to sleep before mid­night. So, from nine to mid­night I am pretty much at it — like I would be from 9:00 AM until noon. Last night I dis­cov­ered Google Earth. If you do not have that pro­gram on your com­puter, I highly rec­om­mend you down­load at least the free ver­sion. You can sit in your liv­ing room and go any­where in the world. It is truly fas­ci­nat­ing.
Last night we were blessed with a clas­sic south­ern thun­der­storm — light show, thun­der and all. I pon­dered watch­ing the late night news or watch­ing the thun­der­storm. I opted for the thun­der­storm. The news has infor­ma­tion, but the storm deliv­ers per­spec­tive. If you have to make the choice between more infor­ma­tion and per­spec­tive, I would rec­om­mend per­spec­tive. Infor­ma­tion with­out it is lit­tle more than noise.
It is easy for nature to make you feel small — espe­cially as you see light­ning and watch the wind sway mas­sive trees. The sounds are also inspir­ing — the wind, the thun­der, and the rain­drops on the roof. There must be a pur­pose in being an observer of the ele­ments that we can­not con­trol. It is a les­son in humil­ity if noth­ing else. The inten­sity of the storm is enough to trig­ger a lit­tle fear, but famil­iar­ity with the storm cycle is reas­sur­ing (storms do not last for­ever).
Per­spec­tive puts things in bal­ance. It reminds the ego of its lim­i­ta­tions and its role as tem­po­rary self-definition. Vul­ner­a­bil­ity is usu­ally not our favorite feel­ing. We pre­fer power. It gives us the illu­sion of con­trol. How­ever, vul­ner­a­bil­ity helps us be approach­able. It cre­ates com­mu­nity. Just watch peo­ple watch­ing a storm — espe­cially if is seems threat­en­ing. It brings us together. It is some­thing we observe but can­not con­trol. In a way, it puts us in our place. We are one of nature’s par­tic­i­pants, not its Creator.