Earth in the Balance, Part 2

[Note: Six months ago, at the time of the vernal equinox, I posted Earth in the Balance describing how life on earth is calibrated with incredible precision to support human life. This is a continuation of that line of thought.]

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Before I begin this blog – has anybody seen my summer? It was here just a few minutes ago. I looked away for just a few minutes and it was gone. Anybody?

Whatever happened, I have it on reliable authority that this Tuesday, September 22, at 8:05 PM summer ends when the autumnal equinox takes place, ushering in the season known as fall. Fall is when most of the rest of the country looks forward to cooler temps, changing leaves and football season. In South Florida we look forward to … football, and the end of hurricane season.

Trying to reason with hurricane season*

As I write this it is just past the peak of hurricane season. While South Florida has been spared so far again this year, we know that when hurricanes do hit they do damage and cause devastation wherein recovery takes many months at least and sometimes years.

Hurricanes are like a bad dance partner who comes in uninvited, steps all over your toes, gets sloppy drunk, makes a huge mess all over the place and then leaves you there to clean up after her and pay for it all. There is a name for nasty, ill-mannered creatures like that.

I was going for “natural disaster.” What were you thinking?

I don’t like hurricanes. I don’t like seeing news reporters lashing themselves to palm trees as they tell us, “Whatever you do, DO NOT GET OUT IN THIS OR YOU WILL DIE*!!!!!*” I really don’t like being without electricity and Internet access and the ability to watch the news. (First-world problems, I know.) But hey, what if one of those reporters gets blown away, and I miss it?

As someone who has lived through many of these beasts, including Hurricane Andrew – it’s part of living in South Florida – you would expect I have nothing good to say about hurricanes. But believe it or not, hurricanes do serve a useful function.

Really.

What possible purpose could hurricanes serve other than to destroy property and devastate lives?

As I understand it, hurricanes actually help regulate global temperatures. They do it by absorbing heat from north Africa, transferring it across the Atlantic in the form of tropical waves, depressions, storms and hurricanes, and depositing that heat somewhere in the western hemisphere.

Speaking for myself and approximately 99.44 percent of all Floridians, Africa can just keep all its #!*@*#! heat to itself, thank you very much. We’ve got all the heat and humidity we need. But that is the function hurricanes serve for the planet. That, and to help “regulate” (read: raise) insurance rates.

Oh, and sending news reporters rushing to the nearest palm tree.

A very finely tuned universe

A few years ago I had the privilege of telling our Kendall Christian School kids the story of Noah. Yes, that Noah, the one who built the big boat and loaded up all the animals to ride out a storm that makes a Cat 5 look like a passing shower. If you don’t want to believe that happened, fine. But if you have any room in your worldview for the supernatural and miraculous, Noah’s ark should fit in it without too much trouble. We’ve all experienced what just one day of heavy downpours can do to an area; imagine what 40 days of nonstop rain would do.

Among other fascinating aspects of Noah’s story (which you can read about in Genesis 6-10), God makes a covenant with Noah when the flood is over. For his part God promises among other things never to destroy the world by flood again, something the people up in the New England area may have questioned recently for a couple days. He also promises the world will always run according to regular, predictable patterns. Night will follow day and in turn give way to day to be followed by night etc. etc. Seasons will move along in predictable order. Spring will lead to summer; summer will give birth to hurricane season which peaks September 9-10 and gradually give way to fall; which will ….

Begin this Tuesday at 8:05 PM. Like clockwork. God promised, and as far as I know that promise has not been rescinded.

No guesswork in the clockwork

A lifetime ago I used to play acoustic guitar a bit and lead music for various groups. A song I loved to play is Michael Martin Murphey’s Carolina in the Pines. On the off chance you’re not familiar with Michael Martin Murphey (Wildfire; What’s Forever For? Still Taking Chances) you can easily look him up. The middle verse walks the phases of the moon – new moon on the fourteenth, first quarter on the twenty-first, full moon in the last week – and then lands on the line I have never forgotten:

“There’s no guesswork in the clockwork.”

Happy fall, everyone. Right on time.

Kent

*Hat tip to the late Jimmy Buffett for that line. FWIW, my son Andrew and I met Jimmy once as we were leaving a Miami Heat game. He couldn’t have been nicer.

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