The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT| What's So Bad About Rain? By William E. Bohn WE ARE funny people. No sense. No logic. I am sitting once more in our north room, the same one in which I wrote recently about the...
...We feel that the world outside has turned enemy...
...When I got this far...
...Nothing could be a lovelier, livelier green...
...Everyone agrees with him...
...And there is a thing I never thought of before...
...It seems to me that the attitude of people in the semi-arid regions of the West is more rational than ours...
...Up to the last century, what they did have was pitifully inadequate...
...Up to comparatively recent times, they had no artificial illumination at all...
...Colors are subdued...
...I happen to glance out the east window toward the rose garden-and suddenly it comes over me that, in the midst of the wild storm, the first roses have burst into bloom...
...Their clothing was inadequate and uncomfortable...
...All these considerations are above and beyond the merely utilitarian aspects of the rain...
...It was lime to go out and get closer to those roses, the first ones of 1954...
...Then I become conscious of the fact that there is something especially exquisite about the softened outlines produced by the rain and the mist...
...If there is one thing more beautiful than rain, it is the sun after rain...
...Time, too...
...As they bend low with the wind and then, recovering, sweep back beyond their original, upright position, it is as if the whole green world were expressing itself in mighty rhythmic motions, in a dance of the elements...
...We shut windows tight to keep the water out...
...A bluejav had darted down to feed...
...Our homes are warm, dry and well-lighted...
...And is there any more fun than striding along in a lively shower...
...If we venture into the open, we protect ourselves with overshoes, raincoats, umbrellas...
...Our ancestors, especially those who inhabited dark northern lands, suffered much from the elements...
...This is one part of life about which the British have more sense than we...
...The gods were placated and life was comfortable...
...Nature is more molten, more fluid than in the bright sun...
...Time to stop glorifying the rain...
...During the long winters, they spent their time huddled in huts or caves which furnished scant shelter...
...perchance, the rains fall, they not infrequently gather to return thanks...
...Outlines are toned down...
...We must defend ourselves against it, hide ourselves away from it...
...When dark clouds roll overhead and the rain swirls down, something shuts up in our minds...
...This whole way of thinking and acting seems more rational than our churlish grumbling at the "terrible weather.'' Our attitude can, I suppose, be explained and excused on historical grounds...
...Storms cause us no danger or discomfort...
...Suddenly...
...Because they are dependent, or partly dependent, on natural downpour, they appreciate Nature's blessings...
...The lightning and thunder which frequently accompanied the rain were thought to express the disapproval of an angry god...
...When the sun shone and the sky was blue, there was no argument about it...
...They, too, have started to unfold in all their glory-and this while the iris and other spring flowers are still gay...
...The more I think about this thing, the more idiotic our attitude seems...
...We have retained an irrational attitude after all the causes which created it have disappeared...
...Even the fruitful irrigated regions of the earth, like those of Southern California, cannot produce such varied and voluptuous forms of loveliness as those which we have in the regions of plentiful and natural irrigation from the clouds...
...I noted a flash outside the west window...
...The wind and rain are the great liberators of blossoms, the midwives of beauty...
...I became conscious of the fact that he was brighter than anything I had seen since yesterday...
...I explain to my friends to the point of yveariness that constant "good" weather is what creates deserts...
...To the west, I look far out across my neighbors' lawns...
...But it is pretty silly in America in 1954...
...The elements are against us...
...The farmer who delivers vegetables says: "It's a terrible day...
...Trees in motion are far more beautiful than trees at rest...
...We have clothes adapted to every sort of season...
...Roused by this discovery, I investigate the peonies...
...I am sitting once more in our north room, the same one in which I wrote recently about the sun and the spring and the bird music...
...But now the north wind is lashing the rain against the windows...
...This way of reacting was logical enough for our forefathers in Northern Europe a thousand years ago...
...for an appreciative look at the jewels which gleamed and glowed at the tip of every leaf and bud and grass-blade...
...We have turned up the heat and resorted to books and magazines for amusement...
...We don't trust the forces of nature...
...We can walk in the rain without getting wet...
...The birds have sought shelter...
...When the rain fails to come, they frequently gather in their churches to beg the intervention of a beneficent Providence...
...Instinctively-when I don't stop to think-I agree with him myself...
...That was "good" weather...
...So I looked upward and saw that the sun was shining and the sky was blue...
Vol. 37 • June 1954 • No. 23
