LOVE
– Let me put it to you that the start of the sound on the roof that is not
instantly understood, only as the sound increases in number until before long
is a steady clatter or flow, inspires the need to rush to the nearest window
where the sound is quickly a forest of water droplets let go of by clouds, dark
and out of view above, radiating life and light. MIRTH – I put it to you that predictable
day with its humourless to-do lists is turned by a torrent along gutters over and
jib-jab of plummets in pooling puddles, into a spectacle for relief bursting
with laughter at the thought, more like the surge through the body, that says
your previous pile of worries are piffle, your stubborn indulgence in pettiness
is dumb; that says you will watch vertical cascades turn horizontal at ground
level with glee, thousands upon thousands of ground zeroes. ANGER – You read
about storms in stories, as warnings from gods that your patterns of life are
spoilt; about floods rising above rooftops where everywhere is one sea. You
read stories of climate change that speak as if great floods, like great
drought, are outcomes of a volatile Earth righting itself, casting about for
solace, for a cure. COURAGE – Let me say that such enormous forces of water,
looming then let loose, have been beyond your control, and mine, for as long as
we have opened our eyes; likewise each generation since waters parted from the
heavens; and how this unmanageable element, more a power than simply an element,
may be avoided or worked with takes as much courage as ingenuity. FEAR – Why,
indeed, the weight of rain falling and then rushing hitherward may get into
your house, or the storm lift the roof and wash everything away from one moment
to the next, as the clouds keep arriving unseen behind other clouds dark with
the threat of heavy falls; may isolate you from me, even close the conversation;
may render obsolete the crowded inventions we put so much store by, yours and
my own small share of inheritance. AVERSION – Such is rain’s condition of
seeming indifference, I put it to you there is reason to desire only ever a clear
day, as the inescapable element pounds on the ground, cuts off roads, upturns
bridges, and muzzies the mind with relentless pouring that would be designed,
by all that is reasonable, to disappoint expectations, dampen the mood, and
ruin your day for the foreseeable future. WONDER – However, such time-honoured
aversions turn out to be immaterial, I put to you, when you gaze at the white
falls of walling water hiding the views awhile on every side, their
corresponding thunderous torrents across tin roofs and open courtyards, with
inside calm and quiet within where you gaze in silence, happy to believe in
good fortune, which is blessing of complete wonder. SORROW – You could choose,
later sometime, to look upon the losses inflicted by the storm, what then you could
do to help that you could not in the midst. Or choose to watch raindrops
dropping one two three into a still pool outside your window and wonder why instead
of feeling pleased, you wish with a touch of longing for more of the same
downpour.
