Several lines of thunderstorms passed through this afternoon with heavy downpours, high winds, bolts of lightning, and cracks of thunder that rattle the rafters and my bones. I love watching and listening to the power of Mother Nature. In spite of the fear spawned by watching huge trees bend nearly in half in the wind, I am in love with the raw power of nature.
After the heaviest of the rain (so far) slipped past us, I opened windows and doors, letting much cooler air flood through the house. Though we were comfortable with the thermostat set at 79 and the temperature adapting to our requirement, the flow of much cooler temperatures through screened windows is delightful. Our thermometer asserts the outside temperature is 66 to 67 degrees. That 12 degree drop from “normal” is a delight. I could sleep like this so extremely well. I risked opening the windows, though, only because the rain must have washed most of the airborne pollen out of the air, at least temporarily. Though I love nature, I’d like to identify, mark, and kill every tree that sends tons and tons of pollen into the air around us. That’s selfish and demonic and identifies me as the basest of the base human forms, but that’s the way it is. I love trees. I love cool temperatures even more.
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We (a small group of Unitarian Universalists and their ilk) completed module number eight of an eight-module course on church leadership today. Though there were bits and pieces that reinforced things I’ve long since forgotten, there was nothing new. And the program was astonishingly slow and agonizingly repetitive. And the technical aspects seemed to have been handled by people unfamiliar with video editing. At the conclusion, we celebrated. I would have preferred wine to water and venison backstrap to candy, but no one asked. And I know of no one willing to contribute venison backstrap to such a celebration. It’s over, though. But we’re thinking about continuing our little group discussion, but adjusting it to address major issues of the day with a difference from our usual approach: we want to address issues of concern from OUR perspective, but we want to hear an articulate expression of opposing views. We don’t want to argue, we want to understand. And vice versa. It’s a noble idea. I hope we can find a way to make it happen. I think we tend to assume our way of looking at the world is always the right way. I tend to believe, even my perspective, our views are shaped by misconceptions and erroneous information.
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The wind blowing in my face is absolutely glorious! If I could bottle this sense of joy caused by a relative small drop in temperature, I’d have an enormous backlog of orders. But the wine. The wine that accompanies this joyous airborne experience is only moderately adequate. It’s a box wine, wine we purloined from a facility that’s not supposed to allow people to leave with wine. We tricked the people in charge (I feel moderately bad for being such a monster) to look another way while we left with the wine. We had paid for two boxes of wine; almost none of it was consumed, thanks to an appallingly low turnout for our event. So we wanted to take the wine. But state law says “no.” I say to state law, “bite me.” So we broke the law. If a law enforcement officer reads this blog and attempts to arrest me, I will claim that I’m a fiction writer. What I just wrote is pure fiction. We left with water. Only water. After drinking several glasses of water, I fell into a deep, water-induced sleep. Yeah. That’s it.
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For reasons that, honestly, escape me, I’ve been wondering about the motives for adultery. Why do people “stray?” Is adultery really as horrible as we make it out to be? Is it possible for one person to love or, at least, have extremely strong feelings for, more than one person at the same time? Is marriage really as “sacred” a commitment as religions (mostly) make it out to be? And I’ve been having Jimmy Carter level questions about the morality of “lusting after” people who are not our spouses. Aside from the psychological damage it might inflict on a spouse (reason enough to avoid it), is adultery really immoral? Would society be healthier if we all decided that spouses or partners would no longer be judged for the occasional “fling” or an even more intense departure from the norm? I’m just asking for a friend. 🙂 No, seriously, that was intended as a joke. Probably not a good one.
I blame the weather for this post. The cool temperatures make me crazy(ier than normal). The aroma of wet clots of pine needles rotting in the soil is intoxicating. But I know things will return to normal. Some times, I hate normal. I dream of all forms of deviance. Normal is the province of the dying. We need to shake things up on occasion. Build walls and fences just so we can tear them down in fits of righteous rage. Imprison people who break misdemeanor laws and lock them away as if they have just hacked the president of the United States to death with a meat cleaver. Oh, wait. Never mind.
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