A Nuisance Or A Necessity?
I’m in Shreveport Louisianna and it’s Spring. That’s significant because I love crawfish. I wouldn’t have expected to love crawfish. I’m not generally fond of spicy food. And crawfish, or crawdaddys or mudbugs when cooked cajun style, are spicy.
And it’s significant that it’s Spring because crawfish have a season. Last time I was here it was a few months ago and the crawfish were not in season.
They are now. And they are really good.
But, there’s another thing Springtime in Louisianna is known for. It’s muddy. It rains. . .a lot. On the radio on the way to work this morning I heard a commercial that cautioned people from driving across their lawns. . .because they will get stuck. And then, at work, one of the engineers talked about a series of tornadoes that came through a couple of months ago.
The engineer went around his neighborhood collecting firewood. But, there was one house where he wasn’t able to get the stack of wood. It was stacked neatly on a section of concrete that was surrounded by the homeowners lawn.
“I couldn’t get my truck close enough to the concreate slab to load the wood.”
Rain in Louisanna is a necessary evil. The houses don’t have basements, it’s too wet. The land is swampy and marshy.
It’s hard for me to watch. Seriously, I can hardly stand it. You see, water isn’t a nuisance to me. Even as I walk through the rain. Even as I work to keep my shoes clear of mud. I just can’t adopt the locals view of rain.
See, I’m from Utah. The land of the greatest snow on earth, and Zion’s National park. . .oh yeah, and a desert that is suffering through another drought year. Last year was a good water year. This year has not been.
In the desert, water is life. It occupies our thoughts. It’s never far from our minds. We watch the snows in January and February and we see water for our lawns in August and September. We dam our streams and rivers to prevent this precious liquid gold from racing into the Great Salt Lake to be wasted.
We build basements into our houses, but typically let them sit unfinished. We grumble about shoveling our driveways and 300′ of sidewalk, but remind our children that “We can certainly use the moisture.” In sunday services, we thank God for the sunshine, but more often petition him for the rains.
I stand outside here in Shreveport and watch the rain showered down on those who don’t appreciate it. It’s funny how the rains falls on teh grateful and the ungrateful, but what is one man’s burden is another’s bounty. What one man has too much of, another not enough.
As the rains fall this Springtime, may they spare the South and bless the Mountain West.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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