I'm sitting here in the International Terminal of O'Hare airport, waiting to board an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin, then on to Toulouse, France.
The skies have just opened up in a mad fury and a huge thunderstorm has descended upon us. Outside is grey/black with almost no visibility - it's 3:30pm and suddenly feels like midnight. It's nuts! Living in San Francisco for so many years, I have forgotten what a summer storm feels like. First, the opressive heat and heavy air. Then, the darkening of the skies. And boom! Angry streams of water pummeling down on everything in their path, accompanied by booming thunder and flashes of lightning. Now there is a weird calm outside. And then, after nature has had its way with us, a bright, clean calm. It's pretty awesome - it feels almost biblical.
We are not going anywhere soon. There are rumors that the airport has been shut down because of tornado warnings. But you know, I am OK with it. It's easy to convince ourselves of our control in this world, including where we go and when - our limits seem boundless. That is when nature likes to step in and say, "Yeah? I don't think so."
