The latter rain;

As I am writing this at about 530 pm, it has been  a slow rain all day long.  My neighbor's usually large anniversary celebration--they have 10 kids--has been moved to a pole barn in Troy Grove. I picked beans in the rain after church since it seemed to me it was not going to let up. And it hasn't. It picks up, then slows slightly--a perfect storm, that is, no thunder, high winds or lightning.  I am also pretty sure this is due to hurricane activity to the south of us, as I have seen this pattern before. 

The concept of the latter rain, as a segment of the earth cools, is recorded in the Bible, in fact, it was very much depended upon and often made a second crop possible. Jews were expected to contribute a percentage of their first fruits from the former rain, ie the first crop after spring rains. The second harvest in some ways could trump the first in that the plants had longer to mature, and one could plant again even around the first ones, and there was no latter rain harvest offering required. So that if one is less than thankful, one could withhold more of the harvest for one's self or the winter, whichever is worse!

Winter wheat is the product of latter rains and the cooling of the land to the point of enhanced growth growth and may even come from the ungleaned seeds left on the ground, to the point where it is not necessary to scatter new seed.  I plant some wheat and oats every year, and the oats are sprouting again at the base of my small patch. 

Two items of interest from the BBC:  first, a man in Massachusets was operated upon for a lung cancer, and it turns out it was a "biodiversity neoplasm," a pea plant about one half inch long that had gone to seed, and out of it again, in his lung.  Very funny, God,  said the patient. It is not recorded whether he has stopped the sin of smoking yet--Ban the Hobbits!!!

Also that areas of subSaharan Africa have been in a 40 year drought--yet the biomass of the area has actually increased! (It sure doesn't slow down the weeds much, here) In other words, it only took subtle changes in order to adapt fully, at least on the green side of the equation.

In Serbia, the Greek Orthodox bishop has called for repentance in exchange for rain.  He says it is all because of sin and lack of stewardship of what we have been given. Which is of course exactly the doctrine of the religion of Science.  Whatever bad happens down here, it's still and always our fault. Some of our Greenpeace folks could give us some lessons in the worldwise application of Absolute Calvinism. Religion does not in general deal in the sins of animals or plants, were that even possible.  (on the other hand, bad kittie! See Simon's Cat on U Tube)

Being so involved with plants and trees, naturally I am very drought-sensitive and tend even to stress about it. This drought felt different than 1988 and so on. Maybe because I am older.  I tended from the beginning towards acceptance and a kind of resignation. And the fact that weathermen are like doctors--they  have to get paid whether they are right or wrong--is an additional reassurance for us!  Life goes on.

  Taking a wait-and-see approach is usually better than global panic, wouldn't you say? Nor with all the green I have planted--diversity included for those who obsess about such things--do I have any use for guilty feelings about the environment.  If everyone was like me, the corporate world and our consumerist capacity would be starving to death.  Don't look to me to give the economy a lift!

On the other hand, I agree with one statement from "Jurassic Park"--- "Life will find a way."  It will take a lot stronger force than  mere human sin, original or invented or proposed, to make this planet uninhabitable. It will be be desolated at some point of course, no matter how old one thinks the earth  is.  And it will not be flooding but "fervent heat," or "heat death." As James Baldwin titled his most salient work with a Biblically-derived quote, "The Fire Next Time"  could occur soon--but probably not today....