Fooling (with) Mother Nature

      Twenty-first century Earth:  In the foreground, the plain as it must have looked for centuries, buffalo grass, blue sky; man’s attempt to improve on Mother Nature.  How many man-made improvements can you find? 

      Sometimes, Mother Nature puts on a beautiful show.

  

      No wonder ancient man tried to explain Nature with human characteristics.  How else to explain this?

      The picture doesn’t really capture the scene, the whole field of broken plants, and the smell of new-mown hay lying useless in the mud.

      On Wednesday, June 4, 2014, those were healthy wheat plants.  One temper tantrum later, they were broken stems hammered to the ground.

     One neighbor called early Thursday to ask if I had gotten hailed.  No, not really.  Well, three miles west of us, hail still lay six inches deep over field and road.

    It was an ugly storm.  So ugly I arose from my bed, threw on a robe and put the poor old pickup in the garage.   Fortunately for me, it was an unnecessary precaution.  The rain gauge said .50”.  I thought surely as hard as it came down it had to be at least an inch, but no.

    I might have driven the three miles to snap a picture of the results of Mother Nature’s icy  rage, but another neighbor, on his way to file a claim with his hail insurance man, stopped by to see how I fared.  He reported severe damage south of us.  We visited awhile and then when he left, it was time to get to trimming the yard a little.

  

All better.

    Somehow I have avoided Mother Nature’s wrath, and have bathed in her gentler light.  My wheat still looks like,

     It’s probably politically incorrect these days to do things to court Mother Nature’s favor, you know, like human sacrifice and the like.  But I will keep my head down and my great expectations concealed as best I can.  It is, after all, overt and excessive emotions like pride, joy, or grief that attracts the attention and intervention of supernatural powers. 

     It’s the boastful pride that gets one knocked off the rock by a lightning bolt, or unparalleled joy that brings the crushing accident and misfortune, or heartbreaking display of grief that gets you turned into a river or a constellation.

    Let us therefore be humble.  It’s particularly difficult when you see a new son keeping some old planets in orbit.

Man, I hope Mother Nature isn't jealous.  Surely She will understand that this is perfectly natural.