The Rains

With July, come the rains

As sure as the sun sets in the west, so does July bring her rains. July
is the maverick dramatically breaking away from the summer months,
the leader that troops in the rest of the rainy season. July prompts us
to scan the skies, respect the weather office, tell the nimbus from the
cirrus clouds, differentiate thunder from a backfire. It introduces the
wardrobe of rain: colorful jackets and sweaters, raincoats and
umbrellas, boots and wooden clogs. It dictates a new lifestyle, for July
dares to be different.

Rain has many nuances and meanings. To the romantic, it is a creation

of beauty – by its sound and by its sight, as well as its touch. It
weaves a mood that touches one’s sensitivity and feelings. To the rain-
people, its patter is music, its misty veil a haunting vision, its
cleansing touch a salve to inner wounds. It makes a perfect companion
especially on evenings.

To the farmer, rain is the grace of life, the meaning of goodness, the
perquisite of the abundant harvest. Rain is the playtime for some
children, a chance to play and comply with mother’s orders to bathe at
the same time. Rain is a scourge to the commuter who must struggle
for his ride and brave hellish traffic snarls. It is a nightmare to urban
administrators who witness in each downpour a resurgence of floods.
To the poor, it is a time of misery, a time to bear up with leaking roofs
and walls, to brace the cold winds without the comfort of warm
blankets.

Rain blesses as it torments but the blessings outweigh the pains. And
so man must not only live with it but tame it by preparing for it and
making provisions for its advent. When the skies darken and it starts
to shower, let us remember that rains are a fundamental truth, a
guarantee to the perpetuity of life, a summary of all the centuries that
have preceded us, a reassurance to man as well as to the trees and
plants, the birds and the insects and all the creatures of the earth that
they rhythm of life is working perfectly and that this miracle shall
persist through eternity.

Again, the rains

The rains are upon us once more. Depending on one’s outlook, they
will either bring joy or misery. For the young who could not afford the
luxury of swimming pools or the balm of fresh ocean air, the rains will
usher in another chance to display their natatorial prowess, albeit in
hardly ideal ambience.

To those of us who work, the rains will mean sloshing in oil-stained

floodwaters and jamming, sardine-like, into crowded public
conveyances to get to the office.

To the workers in the fields the rains will bring bountiful hopes for
more bountiful harvests.
But to those fettered to a fate of catastrophic floods, the rains will
bring more tragedy, particularly in areas where those illegal dikes
proliferate.

Whatever it is, the rains are either boon or bane. But man, in his
endless search for wisdom to tame the excesses of nature, must surely
find a way to make the rains the blessing that they always must be. To
those in areas where the rains are now curse, that wisdom must be
applied. Then and only then can we enjoy the happiness that has
always been the rains.

 The above articles were taken from two newspaper editorials.