AP Photo

A local TV weather personality described yesterday's weather as a "rainy, dreary day" during their morning broadcast.
I was listening to this as I was looking at a computer screen full of dramatic Associated Press photos depicting wildfires consuming hundreds of square miles Southern California, incinerating thousands of homes and taking several lives. The photos showed firefighters just feet away from towering walls of flame, families sleeping in a stadium because their homes were gone or in danger, and homeowners picking through the rubble looking for shards of their material existence.
Then I thought about the disasters we don't hear much about every day. Droughts in Africa are not extraordinary; they are the norm. Much of the third world depends on natural weather cycles for their livelihoods and their lives in a way we haven't needed to in years.
With all the talk of global climate change, we have just started to examine our role as the dominant species on earth. Yet so far we seem unable to break ourselves from the "sunny day good, rainy day bad" mentality that seems to plague our television personalities.
I find them dreary.
I am glad when it rains, and glad when it's sunny. I like that it gets cold in the winter, and warm in the summer. The goal is balance, and we are fortunate to live in an area that usually has a pretty good variety of mild weather. The past two months have been very dry, and the rain we received this week is just what we needed.
For that, I am thankful.