There has been so much concern lately
regarding man's ability to change the environment. We worry about
cutting down the forests, damming up the rivers, endangering the
species, warming the globe and paving the wetlands. We have begun to
wonder, somewhat self-righteously, how on earth the earth ever survived
without us!
Then we have extreme weather.
We watch floods in Arizona, avalanches in
the Rockies, blizzards in the breadbasket and the mother of all storms
closing airports from Albany to Atlanta. Secretaries of state, lettuce
growers, Sierra Club members who always paid their dues, cowboys,
geniuses and self-made millionaires all huddled in their little holes
waiting for Public Service to turn the lights back on.
Human beings are pretty small potatoes
when Mother Nature decides to put us in our place. And those of us who
live on the land seldom need reminding of our status in the pecking
order.
When you have to leave your four-wheel
drive out on the road for a week and walk the half-mile to the house,
it's a humbling experience for both you and General Motors.
When you can't feed for three days and only lose two cows, you are thankful.
When the flood washed away the machine shed but spares the house, you consider yourself lucky.
When the temperature in your orchard doesn't reach freezing as predicted, you know you've been spared.
It has to do with deadlines.
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