Every once in a while, I'm struck by the notion that this land is not ours. Of course, that's obvious when something like Japan, Indonesia, Haiti, or New Orleans happens. But it never strikes me until I'm standing before nature myself, even though the impacts that I see with my own eyes pale in comparison to the aforementioned catastrophes.
It hit me when I was standing in Pompeii looking toward Mt. Vesuvius. People who stood in that exact spot before fell to the whim of that cantankerous beast. That I could stand there then is only because the volcano allowed me to.
And last night, as I walked down to the newly expanded Mississippi River, I was in awe of how she just takes what she wants and anybody with good sense gets out of her way when she does so. This isn't even a particularly bad flood; everything that is flooded now floods every year. That's the nature of the river, and if we want to live here, we have to do so around it.
And it's so very tempting to kayak down the bike path. Too bad I don't own a kayak.
