A Glass Half-Full... Of Rain.

I like to think of myself as a 'glass half-full' kind of person. I may not always have this quality in every circumstance I face, but I do try to find the silver lining in life's storms.


Speaking of which, we had some gentle rains this afternoon, here in Johannesburg. I'm sure you no doubt will know, as a fellow inhabitant of this overly congested planet, that as soon as one single molecule of precipitation falls from the sky, a phenomemon begins to occur below. As this catastrophic droplet of H2O plummets toward the earth, the magnetic fields in the atmosphere twist and warp and mutate. And when the droplet makes it's fatal impact on the ground, the now-shuddering magnetic fields implode upon themselves, sucking in with them all cognitive brain capacity, all human hand-eye co-ordination, and all ability to reason and form constructive decisions. The shock-wave from this astronomical incident is also known to cause all existing thought processes to become scrambled, forcing the brain of said thought processes to restart entirely.


And this is why, when it rains, traffic comes to a grinding halt. People become stupid on a universal scale.


So, when I left work in the drizzling rain, I resigned myself to the fact that I would be facing some heavy traffic on the way home. Surprisingly enough, not only was traffic lighter than usual, but I found that there was something I could be grateful for in the rain; a silver lining, so to speak. 


For the first time this week, I was able to drive on the highway without a teenager in a GTi weaving around my car, or a rooster* in an Audi riding up my rear bumper flashing his lights. No blind old businessman in a Merc cutting me off because he had the lack of foresight to see the slow truck right in front of him.


Yes, the rain seems to make people safe. And civilized. Perhaps it is the trance-like state that follows the droplet-hitting-earth-apocalypse, but my highway experience this afternoon was just so..... Peaceful.
And for this, I was grateful. I am also grateful that something as mundane as traffic and weather has given me something to write about. 


There is always something to be grateful for. 


This whole experience made me think of a song, which is now stuck in my head. Funnily enough, this song is completely unrelated to the topic at hand, but I shall share it with you for two very good reasons: 


1. The song makes reference in the first verse to a "road, long and winding", and a "silver lining" that's "out there somewhere." Other than this verse, the song is totally random to whatever it is I'm trying to write about. Weather... Traffic... Gratitude... Who knows. (not me) 


2. Bryan Adams is really easy-on-the-eyes, for an older guy

Enjoy this lovely tune (yes, click on the pretty purple writing), and may your upcoming Friday be fraught with silver linings, civilized drivers, and if you're especially lucky, someone like Bryan Adams to look at. 




*rooster in Audi is the kind of driver that Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear refers to... but Mr. Clarkson is a little less complimentary with his choice of words. Use your imagination, it'll come to you.