I'm waiting. Waiting for the flood water to inundate my town. The last time this happened in Des Moines was 15 years ago.
At the time I was weeks into a relationship with the man who would become my husband. Back then, Frank knew how to show a girl a good time: five days after the flood had closed down the city's water system, Frank drove me to the home of relatives outside of town so I could enjoy a shower. Being clean had never felt so good! And I told myself that I'd never take water for granted again.
The flood of '93 had come unannounced. But this time it's different. Now the flooding is inevitable and experts are busy making predictions. Some say that the water will overflow the reservoir dam yet today. Others predict tomorrow. Other than the simplest of precautions, however -- like closing low-lying roads and bridges -- life and work proceed as normal. Living high on a hillside, I have the luxury of not becoming too worried ... and the staff where I'm officing remains unconcerned despite having flooded in the past. How perplexing! How complacent! How surreal!
I recall the gorge which the floodwaters carved into the rock beneath the spillway in 1993. What power lies unseen in still water! How marvelous yet fearful is this element that daily I've discounted as a commodity of nature!
Water has quenched my thirst, cleansed my body and cooled my brow. Its delicate raindrops bring my hillside home to life each spring and its frozen flakes blanket the evergreens every winter. In jets of pressure, water has soothed my aching muscles. And gurgling in creek beds it has refreshed my very spirit. But today I await water's destructive side.
I am humbled. Humankind has yet to master to such a basic element as water. Oh, we've come a long way in harnessing its value for our own good, but we cannot match the power of its unique strength: fluidity. With no will to guide it, water will aways seek out new paths from the smallest fissures and lowest elevations. It will do so in droplets, streams and in torrents for it cannot be contained for long.
By the week's end I will have fully regained my respect for nature's power ... and for water in particular. I won't be the only one. Still, I hope it will be gentle with us: the collective memory is so fleeting.
Stumble It!
It is indeed a humbling thing! Water, that is. Here in the UK, I don’t know any official statistics, but we have certainly had more occasions of flooding in recent years than previously. I, like yourself, have been fortunate enough to live in places that have not been directly affected. Each time the waters rise, however, I observe… the stories on the local and national news… the attempts at erecting barriers… the sand bags… all to little or no avail… the waters always rise, they seep through the tiniest of gaps, they gurgle and bubble through anything that can be gurgled and bubbled through, they lap over walls, riverbanks, flow along streets, through houses, ruining carpets, furniture, vehicles and inciting exasperation and big repair bills amongst the owners of the shops and pubs and hotels who trade on the “flood plains”…
It is unstoppable!
And yet there is little in nature that comes close to its unique and powerful beauty…
Posted by: pepsoid | June 11, 2008 at 05:35 AM