A Gathering Storm (September 7)

“If the weather cleared, the barometer would rise. In that case, the fishing would pick up …”

“But half an hour without strikes confirmed what the gradually darkening skies suggested. The air pressure was dropping. Soon, the rain would return. And worse, there would be few if any fish. Already, no other anglers were in sight. The first droplets dimpled the water here and there. Then their pace quickened…”

At length, “something felt wrong. The air became totally still. A faint flash lit the horizon. A peal of thunder rolled in seconds later. Then a second bolt blazed directly overhead, and a much louder thunderclap followed right away. There was no time to lose. I stowed my gear and turned back towards the Point.

“The worst of the menace abated as quickly as it had arisen. Still, the breeze cooled and the rain fell more heavily than ever. At full throttle, I made it to the dock in twenty minutes.

pp. 166-7

No doubt youngsters are too frequently willing to run risks they should avoid. So older folks feel justified in smiling at how ‘invincible’ their naïve offspring assume they are! But so many diverse hazards beset us that there can be merit in learning to distinguish between cases where a simple yes/no response is best, and others where the key skill is to be able to decide on the degree of danger that one is ready to accept.

I suspect all of us can recall gambles we took that might now be judged unwise, but that made sense at the time. Learning to respect but also to challenge the threats posed by stormy weather probably falls into that category.

Can you post an example of such a choice from your own experience

(Illustration generated by AI)