Thunder and Lightning

I grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota. On a regular basis during my childhood, the clouds rolled in from miles away - maybe even 100 miles away and I could witness every inch of its approach. Montana calls itself The Big Sky State but I beg to differ. There is nothing to make you feel smaller than the approach of gigantic looming billowing clouds against a dark and ominous sky. It's as if you were about to be devoured by alien spaceships as they land on Earth in the air and space upon which you stand. I remember very well the childhood memory of oscillating between fear and awe as they approached overhead. I get sad that this occurance doesn't trigger my memories very often anymore given the state of our warming globe. Back in the day, it was almost every other day during the summer that precipitation threatened to bring me inside sooner than I would have liked.

Today, we had a thunderstorm. And while I sat in my office and the little window behind me seemed to let in less light, I realized that the sky was darkening. Within the time it took for me to get up, move about 50 feet to the entrance of the building so that I could take a look, the thunder struck and the lightning flashed. And as I stood there for about 20 more seconds to watch its performance, the clounds parted and the sun shone; hardly the extra-terrestrial experience I had as a child. Knowing that I have global warming to blame, I felt robbed of the simple pleasure of fear and anticipation of a good thunderstorm.

But even as I realized that global warming has taken so much, the smell of rain that lingered in the air allowed me to linger in nostalgia for a little longer...