THE WEATHER is the ultimate common ground. Beyond culture, gender and origin, the immediacy of the weather and its physical impact on us allows it to be an absolutely collective experience. Yet it is experienced on an intimate level by everyone. In history and in a variety of cultures, the scale of the weather has allowed it to be substituted in some ways for spirituality and in many cultures has been associated to the will of deities.
In my case, since I do not have religion, my weather experience had until recently remained, just weather. When my father suddenly died in June, friends and family most commonly said to me: “Don’t worry, he is still with you and will always be.” And I couldn't help but think how un-true that was... His death is absolutely irrevocable and all I feel inside is the hole left in my heart where he used to be. All I feel beside me is his absence. However, in the days that followed, the skies were filled with thick electrical storms. They were surrealistic landscapes, patched with purple and grey clouds, electricity exploded from their clusters. rain fell in curtains and stopped. All I could think was “Daddy is pissed.” I felt him angry to have died, angry to have left us. The explosiveness of the lightning mimicked his short temper and the magnitude of this gesture was to his measure. And so, if I feel his absence on a daily basis, I do see him in the weather.
|