GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Aug. 5, 2003--  Sheets of water poured from buckets in the sky over New York City yesterday.  It was as though the Sentinels of Vigilance above were washing the blood of Terrorism from the City's streets.

     I have been in Southeast Asia's monsoon country, where it seemed the sky opened and rivers of water flooded down for weeks and months, turning my flesh into ghostly white wrinkles that peeled as the flesh of the dead in the hot sun.
    I thought of the monsoons yesterday as I stood in front of the New York City VA Hospital, watching literal sheets of water coursing downward with such power that visibility was no more than a few feet.
    Above, the skies rolled thunder and cast shards of incandescent lightening, cracking so loudly that people jumped and hugged the side of the building.
    It was torrential rain, uncommon for city folk to witness, a spectacle of Nature's ability to control and rule despite all the efforts of humans to tame and ride and master the earth.
    I listened to the thunder and lightening as someone might bend their ear to the sweet notes of Braham or Bach, savoring each crescendo as though it might be the last ever heard.

     Not a religious man by doctrine, I am by experience.   When the skies open and Nature makes Her presence to all the earthlings below in a tumultuous storm, I am humbled.   I remind myself that I and all humans are mere ants, and that above, in control of all is a Great Force so powerful it can rip the earth into pieces, separating it from quakes within, or, deluge it with so much liquid that all man's and woman's structures end up floating off into the sea, to be swallowed by the force of flood.
     And, despite all the power of Nature to erupt with such magnitude that no one on earth can control or manage, I don't see the wrath of Nature as Terroristic, evil, or driven by some nefarious force.
     Nature is the 'cleaner', the housekeeper of the earth.
     She will deliver upon the earth what it needs, feed its parched deserts, rearrange its mountains, shift its continental shelves, split its continents, and, if necessary, melt its poles.

     I was standing under an eve with another Vietnam Vet.  He looked out and said:  "I love the rain.  It cleans the world.  It reminds me I am clean."
     I thought about his comment.
     People were drenched, bucking the hard winds that drove the pelts of water into their faces, soaking every thread of their clothing.  Some unsuccessfully tried to fool the rain by covering themselves with garbage bags, others walked without protection, hands raised as though praying to the skies, honoring the power of Nature.
     I thought about all the turmoil between humans--the wars and battles waged by mankind in an attempt to seek dominance over the earth, or their particular patch of it.   How futile it ultimately is to try to amass power when the earth itself can heave off its back like a wild stallion any who tries to ride it, to break it, to tame it.

    Still, sophomorically, we humans try to manage the earth, to make it bend to our will.  We build our great structures near the water to enjoy the sunrise and sunset, only to have the buildings battered, shaken and often swept away by the earth's stretching and yawning.
    I thought of Ground Zero, the scene of thousands of deaths dealt by those who sought to overpower the earth with Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.
    The rain washed away the blood of their acts, purifying the earth, reminding us that our acts of violence against one another are meaningless in the greater scope of things.    No one truly rules anything.  No ideology wins over another.  No politics is greater than another when the earth belches, when the sky falls, when the winds howl and drive all us all into caves of shelter hoping to escape the might of Nature.

     I thought about Nature being the ultimate Sentinel of Vigilance.  She stands above all the turmoil, reminding us that our little plans, our little designs evaporate when the sandstorms hurl tiny chunks of sand like bullets into our faces, or the great rivers swell and sweep the land away, or the core of the earth boils and cleaves the earth into crumbling pieces.
     We forget that only a few thousand years ago the earth went dark, turning to ice, wiping out all that was as though Nature had some incredible eraser and decided to renew the canvass with another painting.
     What makes us think we are so powerful as to act like nature?
     Terrorists make a vainglorious attempt.  They try to blow up the earth, to rearrange the structure of society with Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.  But they always fail.  Nature is not always violent weather.

    Nature always conquers the "evil," the "corrupt," that which tries to defy it.   Human beings, whether admitting it or not, are controlled by the veins of Nature.   Ultimately, the Parents of Vigilance rise above the Terrorists, and conquer the Fear, Intimidation and Complacency that tries to rule them.
     That is happening today.
     Nature's rain yesterday was washing away Terrorism.  Nearly three inches of it fell from the sky on New York City.   I saw it - I felt it - cleanse the earth, and remind me that all Terrorism must bow to Nature.
     Nature, I believe, is the author of the Pledge of Vigilance.
     For those who understand Vigilance, understand Nature.  She will not allow the children to be taken from her breast.  She will not allow the winds of humanity to challenge her.  Her lightening and floods will sweep Terrorism out to sea.
     Purity, like the rain, will rule. If...we are Vigilant.

Aug 4--Lawrence of Arabia--A Movie Or A Legacy of Terrorism?

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