The massive, relentless rains have been necessary and deadly and beautiful. Sara Alexander has this Perspective..
I had forgotten so much about rain, without knowing I had. I missed the sound of it, mostly, and I missed it in a romantic way, like a lost lover. But I had also become accustomed to living without it…just putting one drought-fearing and drought-saddened foot in front of the other.
Until, surprisingly, here it was!…and the Ladysmith Black Mombaza song kept running through my head: “Oh rain, oh rain. Oh, beautiful rain. Come to me, come to me… beautiful rain.”
It became less beautiful as it became more endless, and I started to go stir crazy.
Monday, the rain stopped for a day, and I could see that the overflowing Atascadero creek had formed a small lake in the meadow outside my window. Frogs had arrived, followed by ducks and a sole white egret. And suddenly a big buck, out of nowhere, plunged inexplicably into the deepest waters. What was he thinking? I could not imagine.
I had the same question about the human circus developing on the country road that runs along the meadow. The run-off water was still rising and I stood by the yellow ‘Flooded” signs watching a parade of vehicles, some of whose drivers appeared to be competing for the Darwin awards, a tongue in cheek honor commemorating those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it in the most spectacular ways. Some drivers ignored the signs, speeding into the flooded road, spewing great walls of water as they made it to the other side. Others, perhaps wiser, turned around and went another way. And then there were the drivers who didn’t make it across and sat waiting to be rescued.
No one tried to drive through while the tow truck was still there, but once it departed, the circus resumed.
It was all great fun for me until I returned to my computer and googled Santa Cruz and Gilroy, and Santa Barbara, and there I found horror stories of people swept away forever. Oh Rain. Oh devastating - and beautiful – rain.
With a Perspective, this is Sara Alexander.
Sara Alexander is a psychotherapist, writer and filmmaker who lives in San Francisco.