Weather As An Analogy

Ever since JFK was assassinated, I've seen a parallel between events and weather.  I remember that day.  My family was on the way to New York City.  My Dad had business, my Mom was going for fun and I was tagging along to visit some friends.  It was cloudy when we stopped for gas and the station attendent told me the news.  The President had been shot! I immediately rushed to the car and had Dad turn on the radio. We drove on in shocked silence.

As the news turned from bad to worse the rain came.  It wasn't an angry rain, more gentle and cleansing, but oh did it rain.  The restaurant where we had dinner was hushed.  We stopped by my friend's apartment and sat around for a short period trying to make small talk.  We failed miserbly.  The next day, the rain had stopped though the clouds remained.  Dad's business meetings were cancled, there was no fun for Mom and me?  Well, I just went numbly with the flow.

 It was winter of course so the clouds were expected.  It's the rain I remember most.  It seemed like the heavens were expressing the feelings of the country - crying in grief than cleansing the horror.

The storms that have recently hammered the Washington D.C. area brought a lot of that back to mind.  I see horrendous storms ahead.  Full of destrucive winds, driving rain, lightening that crackles, downed power lines, people suffering in extreme heat.   The fire storms in the west too. Devastation. The storms will all end.  The people will pick themselves up and move on.  It's what we Americans do.

But just what is the analogy?  The storm that is brewing over health care.  The implications of whether it's a tax as the Supreme Court has ruled, or a mandate as the administration continues to say.  There is a difference.  Oh, yes.  A huge difference.  There are the problems of implementation.  States saying the won't implement the law.  Law suits forming.  The Republicans insisting on repeal and replace but with what?  Everyone is stumbling around in a daze - even those who think that at least for the moment they have won.  Because they don't have the people.

Then there is the economy which is still struggling.  The unemployed and under employed facing a new tax burden.  Food prices rising because of the droughts and fires.  Oil beginning to go back up because of continued economic instability in Europe.  Stormy.

Iran is playing war games.  Syria continues to stink with the stench of death.  Egypt has a President that wants us to release a terrorist.  Hong Kong Chinese are protesting the visit of China's president.  Mexico is about to elect a President from a party of corrupt thugs.

The lyrics from Stormy Weather say, "Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky."  Actually, I do!