Guest opinion articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. Ed
Lately there has been a lot of rain, not just showers or rainy days but consecutive days and nights of heavy downpour. Flat ground is saturated, rivers have burst their banks, homes have been flooded and worst of all people and animals died. In the UK this treacherous weather has been hard to miss.
Talk has now turned to why we have experienced such conditions. Re-emerging is the subject of climate change and various takes to support such—pollution, greed and even civil unrest in the world are hurled into play. One councillor from Henley-on-Thames has managed to connect the floods with the approval of gay marriage legislation.
The impact on nature
What seems to be overlooked and given deeper consideration is nature. Looking for a definition of nature in this occurrence isn’t easy. The Oxford Dictionary outlines a number of definitions, but none particularly capture the strength and severity nature can muster.
In the UK we’re used to its beauty, gentleness and slow progression through the seasons, clear blue sun filled skies, river pathways cutting through granite rocks and the Tors of Dartmoor, once volcanoes.
We rarely experience severe storms, prolonged heat or heavy snow fall. Perhaps when the continuity of our weather system is broken it comes as too much of a surprise.
How to explain it?
As we’re limited in our control of nature, particularly the weather, is our need to explain a form of control before we accept what happened? It seems to be another example of teaching children where food comes, from the land to the plate. Putting this thought aside, there are hints of superstition in the chat, and perhaps this is the root of the comments regarding the stormy conditions and the windiest December since 1969.
Superstition – irrational fear of the unknown or mysteries – is no longer a word in common use, yet it captures some current views and conversations about the recent gales and difficult conditions. It is fitting when thinking about nature which is mysterious to many, even when broken down to a genetic structure this can mutate and adapt, demonstrating its complexity and connection with external factors.
Beyond our control
If we can go beyond, to reflect more deeply on individual viewpoints, there is something special, delicate even, that is within us all, our wonder and fear of that mysterious gap in our knowledge of this world.
There are things beyond our control and perhaps that is the way it should remain, but with acceptance to allow the fear to disperse and realise our place in the hierarchy of the world we live in. And it is nice to think we all have a little mystery within.
Image: Silent Shot under CC BY 2.0
