As I watch news on television and read newspapers, I am continually faced with the power of nature as it pours its forces out against the works of mankind.
Lately, we see images that show the ravages of tornados as they rip through the southern United States or the effects of the earthquakes and tsunami that have recently struck along the Pacific's rim of fire. In each and every instance we see how the engineering feats of humans pale against the forces Mother Nature has in her arsenal.
In Japan, we see where one of their nuclear power plants, which the engineering world had claimed was absolutely safe, was damaged beyond repair. It has become an environmental nightmare which we had been assured could never happen.
In every case we see the arrogance of humans in thinking they have it within their power to control any situation. In each case nature scoffs at our attempts with such ease I picture Mother Nature sitting back and laughing royally at the miniscule attempts to thwart her.
It is like the lion looking in amazement at the mouse, who is confronting him with fists up ready to fight, and being flabbergasted at the audacity of this small and obviously misguided opponent. We, unlike that mouse, look at ourselves as the most intelligent creatures that exist and, at some point, should grasp the concept we have limitations and we will never be able to outdo and overcome forces we truly do not have the full ability to conceptualize.
Yet we continue to pit ourselves against odds we cannot possibly ever match each and every step of the way. Yes, sometimes we learn from the experience and find new ways to approach the problem but there are times when we surge stubbornly forward and each time we say we have solved the problem when in fact we really haven't even come close to even grasping what it is we are dealing with and should be stepping back to pull out the white flag of surrender.
Other times we have to admit when we build something we know nature is going to rip it down, but we will have to pick up the pieces, do the repairs that are needed and continue living.
A good example of this last point is the swimming area at the Regional Park here in Meota. Each year, since I have been living here, Mother Nature has found some way to damage the berm that encloses it. If it isn't waves washing it away it is the ice moving in like a gigantic earth moving machine as it has this year.
Last year our hard working Lakeshore Lions group erected a wall of concrete barriers to stop the waves from washing the sand away and it did a good job of it.
Well, if you haven't been down there recently, you should take a stroll by and see what nature has thrown at it this year. A couple of days ago the ice started to move in and has now moved right up over the top of a good section of the concrete barrier burying some of it and knocking some of the sections over.
To the credit of our Lions group, we know human persistence will kick in and they will again have it in shape for use by the time the weather gets around to warming up for us to the point where we think about immersing ourselves in water. For this we again say thank you to those members who work so hard to keep things up to support our leisure.
This is a case where we should continue on each and every time some damage occurs. There are others though, where we should question our motives at challenging the elements.
One good case of this a few years ago was at Fishing Lake where cabins/ homes where submerged in a few feet of water and damaged extensively. In that case, some of the owners were surprised when this happened, but there were long time residents who could remember swimming in a few feet of water and actually driving boats where these homes had been built. Somehow, we overlook history when we plan things and still wonder what happened when things go wrong. At the same time, the old timers sit back and with good reason say, "What the heck possessed you to do it in the first place" or, "If you had asked, I could have told you what was going to happen".
April 25 in Kaiser action, Beulah Corbeil took top honours, Ken Tucker followed in second place, Shirley Tebay tied up third spot and Jean Gansauge came in fourth.
The bridge players went at it a couple of times over the last week. April 25, in contract bridge, Robert Iverson placed first with Jette DaSilva came in second. April 26, in duplicate bridge, first place went to the duo of Ray and Marnie Davie with Vern and Judy Iverson coming in second.
Quote: "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he would spend less time proving he can outwit nature and spend more time tasting her glory and respecting her seniority." E.B. White
