And Then It Rained...

 

Hi!

Whenever there is drought inevitably, and sometimes almost ironically, it rains.

Where I call home, it has been the hottest, driest summer in 150 years. The crops are almost non-existent, the pastures are depleted. Saying it's not going to be much of a harvest would be pretty much a laughable understatement for most. As much as possible will be salvaged and sold, in one capacity or another. The very best will be made out of pretty dire circumstances, then, because they are incurably optimistic, farmers will plan for seeding in the Spring. Because for farmers, stories don't end with "happily ever after", they end with, "and then it rained"...

The drought, the rain, the hurricanes, the wildfires, the heat, the snowstorms. All reminders of just how small we are. We start wars over borders we create to show domination. We start wars over religion, each believing their beliefs are the correct beliefs. We start wars over racism, sexism, fascism, and nothing at all. 

We create weapons to threaten each other, to keep each other in check, to kill each other, as long as we can provide justification, however hollow it may be. After all, justification is made easy when you cast yourself as the hero in every story. Then "they' are always the bad guys, the perpetual boogie men. We treat each other horribly based on skin tone, socio-economic status, culture, what type of reproductive organs we have, how we choose to use them, and with whom. 

I guess my point is, it seems humanity is more than happy to find any excuse to treat each other like garbage. There are organizations the world over that dedicate themselves to doing just that. The KKK, Taliban, Nazis, all profess to be providing guidance toward some 'correct' way to live. They justify their actions by writing themselves as the heroes. When they tell the stories you can bet your ass they are the good guys. 

It's like Mother Nature, Mother Earth, the Universe, a Higher Power, God, Allah, whatever your belief is, it's like the planet on which we tread keeps throwing things at us that should make us come together. That should bring out the best in us. That should make us set all else aside to help each other. The crazy storms, the wildfires, the heat, the drought, the earthquakes, hell, a pandemic, for crying out loud... These are, individually, cataclysmic events that we don't get through alone. Any one of these requires help and cooperation to recover from. All of these gargantuan things are happening simultaneously, and humanity's response?

It should be easy.

Wildfires, Hurricanes, Earthquakes, you send more firefighters and rescue workers from all over. You send equipment. You send supplies.

Drought, adjustments will be made, damaged and scant cereal crops will become feed for livestock instead of feed for humans. Supply and demand will shift for a time, shortages may happen for a bit, but then it will rain...

Pandemic, the lifelong, international epidemiologists, and infectious disease specialists do the work and come up with a plan. Those of us who are not experts follow the guidance provided, we control its spread until vaccines can create herd immunity, and said pandemic becomes irradicated. 

It should be easy.

Wildfires... an actual elected official says out loud, in public, and on purpose that some sort of Jewish space laser is to blame for a lot of them. 

Drought... farmers, and consumers will take the hit. Prices will rise at the stores, consumers will pay it because they have to eat, the rising prices never trickling down quite far enough to reach the farmers' pockets. 

Pandemic... becomes a race for gold in the idiot Olympics. I know that may sound harsh, but at this point in the arc of things, I really don't care. The feigned oppression, the intentional spread of misinformation for power and profit with complete disregard of human consequence. The utter idiocy that completely defies logic.

It should be easy.

It seems that the lack of rain isn't the only drought right now. There seems to be a drought of critical thinking, logic, and common sense.

Unvaccinated people are filling the hospitals with covid cases. The cases are becoming more widespread and more severe in young kids who are too young to be vaccinated. It's up to those of us who can to get vaccinated to help protect those who can't. And I do mean can't, not won't. 

If you are not getting vaccinated because you are leary of the fact that the vaccines only have emergency approval, just know that a lot of the treatments used in treating severe cases of Covid only have emergency approval as well.

When you get seriously ill, you trust your doctors, specialists, and medical community, if you trust them then, why not trust them now?

When I tell this story years from now, this story of the common sense drought of the early twenties, I look most forward to the end... "the clouds became heavy with logic and critical thinking, aching to drench those below with peaceful reality... and then it rained."

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May it rain, may it pour, drenching us in peaceful reality.

I can't wait.