Sunday, January 24, 2016

Nature’s Beauty and Havoc

The “Blizzard of the Ages” (aka Jonas) has now passed, leaving behind wondrous sculptures on rooftops, decks, and vehicles.   Emerson, in his poem, “The Snow Storm,” describes it as "The frolic architecture of the snow.”   Like all other similar storms, however (from “The Great White Hurricane” of 1888, the Knickerbocker Storm of 1922, the Blizzard of 1978, the “Storm of the Century” in 1993 and the blizzards of 1996 and 2010) Jonas wreaked havoc as well as “frolic architecture.” That havoc will continue for days to come at astronomical cost all along the mid-Atlantic as attempts are made to clear the highways and byways, repair and rebuild the coastal aftermath, and make up all those cancelled flights at major airports.  

The pristine whiteness of the snow yesterday will soon turn an ugly brown along the highways.  The beautifully sculpted drifts will be plowed down or shoveled away and eventually the snow will melt and coastal waters recede.  Normality (whatever that may be for each of us) will return they say—eventually.


In every storm of life something can be found that is beautiful, as beautiful as the wind-sculpted snow.  Every storm of life brings havoc too.  Nature tells us so.  Life is a conundrum, a confusing and difficult riddle, a puzzle which often times we think has several missing pieces, a brainteaser that we wrestle with everyday.  It is both beautiful and unsightly.  

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