... but nobody’s doing anything about it.” -- Mark Twain
It’s raining here in Southern California and the television, radio and internet is full of non-stop talk about it. Newscasters wrinkle their botoxed brows as they discuss the possibility of mudslides in burn areas and the rise in rain-related incidents all across the Southland. Radio stations have increased their traffic and weather reports to raise our awareness (and anxiety levels) as to what’s going on fifty miles in every direction. The air is swirling with negative ions and conversation, both positive and negative, about the weather.
Walking through my supermarket I hear people complaining about the crazy drivers out there who “forget how to drive in a little rain” or the maniacs who “insist they can still speed on wet, slippery streets.” Granted, those very same people complain on dry days, too – but there is a new level of aggravation associate with darned rainy day motorists.
It has come to my attention this morning that the best place to catch weather conversation is on the internet. In the olden days, before social media, phones, faxes and email gave folks a chance to make passing weather comments in a brief chat or memo. Facebook, Twitter and texting has busted open the floodgates for extended and repeated dialogue, making everyone and their monkey’s uncle’s second cousin an expert about the precipitation outside (despite the fact that most of them are inside).
Technology has been especially helpful to those reticent about making any type of social contact as a rule – those little “What are you doing?/What’s on your mind? boxes make it really easy to put a blurb out about the weather. Surfing the web I see pages and pages of people’s opinions on whether they love or hate the rain, how it affects their mood, ruins their azaleas or makes their office smell like a wet dog.
There used to be a time where men sat around a feed barrel in the mercantile, playing checkers and talking about the weather. Weather is so much a part of our conversational make-up, why they even named the practice. They called it “shooting the breeze”.
I’m alright with the rain and I actually sort of enjoy hearing all the rumblings about it from those around me. Kin Hubbard, one of America’s great humorists put it best when he said, “Don’t knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn’t start a conversation if it didn’t change once in a while.” For some people, the rise and fall of the barometer gives them a chance to connect with others and I’m okay with that, too. With all of the storms we weather as a nation and households where when it rains it pours, I think that catching our breath and shooting the breeze now and again would do us all well… even if it is just about the weather.
