BitterSweetLife

I'm pretty sure that weather conversation gets a bad rap. We're told that we bring up the rain or the recent heat wave because we need a shelf to put our small talk on. But referring to a universally observable phenomenon has deeper claims to our sympathy than that.

And the weather is not merely an interesting event about which to comment or speculate--like, say, the stock market or bracketology. It's an experience that subsumes us, picks us up and sweeps us along. We don't just notice the rain--we're dampened. We don't just observe the rising temperature--our spirits rise with it.

We feel as if the world, in some mysterious way, has changed for the better or worse, along with the skies. And at heart, the metamorphosis of this earth is something that concerns each of us deeply. We're waiting for the last great change, when the sky will melt away in an instant to reveal a better world. Creation is eager to arrive and maybe we sense it. Each small feint toward the last day has us looking at the sky, checking our watches, clearing our throats.

Is this the day the world changes for good?