The Glory of Fall – The Rainy Edition

 

I am writing about the Glory of Falls again making it two posts in a row.

The day after I posted The Glory of Fall – Revisited, I kept thinking about the last paragraph:

I did not take photos of anything in the rain.  The rain muted all the colors.  Instead, I was quite productive this afternoon and evening.  I would stop short, however, of calling the rest of the day glorious.

After writing that last line, I kept wondering why I was not appreciating the rainy side of fall.  Maybe it is simply the fact that the rain takes away from the golden sunshine so amazingly illuminates the colors.  But really, if I truly claim to like the seasons and the changing weather, shouldn’t I also embrace and appreciate all the parts?  Shouldn’t I?

The next morning, I drove to school.  It was nearing dawn and it was raining.  It was the kind of rain where it was a light drizzle for fifteen minutes and then would pour furiously for five or six minutes.  I was thinking about what I had written.  I expressed the truth as I saw, and it bothered me a bit at the same time.  I arrived at school, went to my office, checked my emails, and had an espresso with my friend and colleague Professor Farrugia.  At 7:40, I walked to class it was pouring again.  It was a short walk, maybe a hundred yards or two and I had my head down.  Halfway to class, the pouring transitioned to drizzle so light, it seemed like the rain had stopped.  I was still walking with my head down.  The walkway was blacktopped and wet.  There were yellow leaves, maybe elm and birch, randomly scattered, strewn, about.  I realized that it was beautiful.  I had to take a photo. 

I was changing my view.

Later that afternoon, the sky was still cloudy but clearing.  Everything was still wet, glisteningly wet.  I was in the board room on the third floor of our classroom and student center, the Johnson Center.  There was a tree on the green below.  It too had a rainy beauty about it.  I captured that image as well.

In less than twenty-four hours, I was appreciating the glories of a rainy autumn day.

It is all perspective, questioning the perspective, considering an alternative or two, and maybe adjusting how we see things. 

I am not talking big, huge, life changing axiomatic beliefs but little things maybe we have taken for granted or perhaps never thought about.  Our lives and our perspectives evolve like the seasons.  That is glory of life.

I noticed a lot more people, friends on Facebook, were posting photos of their favorite fall trees and sites.  They were all impressive.  I couldn’t help but wonder if my random tree posts and bloggy bits on the glory of fall just maybe caused this surge of photos.  Maybe, I was one of those whatyacallits, you know, an influencer. 

Now that’s funny.  There is also something glorious about humor.