Nothing Like a Hurricane

California just received a little reminder from Mother Nature that sometimes we need to take her seriously. This is the first hurricane/tropical storm in 80 years to actually make its way into the state with very high winds and lots of rain and flooding.

In the past they mostly stayed on the coasts, creating great waves for adventurous surfers but not bothering Los Angelenos too much. This past weekend was a little different. Kudos to the state and others who prepared well and made her wake-up call a little less piercing.

As is often the case, all the angst, harried newscasters, and texting neighbors and friends had an effect on me. So, I wrote about it.

Nothing like a hurricane

to test one’s mortality.

A stiff wind pushes against

one’s expectations; against

the future’s grand facade;

rattling the windows, shaking

the trees. Mother Nature shimmying

to the rhythm of a billion hearts

fluttering nervously in anticipation.

#

We, mortals, are quite something. Not

in a comic book sort of way, or Greek

Gods stepping down from Olympus

and roughing it for a weekend to see

what it’s all about. We set such great

store in being large and in charge and

yet when the waters rise and the winds

threaten the sanctity of our gazebos

and backyard barbeques, our heart

rates spike; our minds get frantic

and the flight, fight, and freeze of ancient

times collide in our living rooms

as the Weather Channel rages on.

#

I am he as you are he and you are me

and we are all together, as the Beatles once sang.

And though the Walrus has little to do

with current events, damn those were gentler

times. Less complicated. Less rooted in

the calculus of time versus matter versus

social media all arriving at a nexus as

disjointed and far out as a pool party

at Timothy Leary’s.

#

Nothing like a hurricane to clench the old

sphincter muscles; to wrest control of

our lives out of our grasping fingers

And set them adrift in the slipstream of

cosmic intervention as we get all humble

and religious and question what we knew

to be true all along — the fragility of who

we are and the certainty that in the end

we’ll be okay.