Storm

Tonight we had this really epic thunderstorm. It was right outside my window. My roommate and I turned off the lights, sat at our desks, and just watched it. At one point, two bolts of lightning somehow converged, maybe 50 yards away from our window. When they touched, there was a huge flash of light; I thought there'd been an explosion. The two bolts funneled down into one, maybe it hit the ground. I don't know because while all of this was happening, I was busy falling out of my chair and diving for cover behind my desk. And I'm not ashamed to admit that. Thunderstorms are really awesome. Awesome in the literal sense. Awe-inspiring. And scary, and humbling and they make me feel glad to be alive. But I also really enjoy them. I really enjoy looking at the radar and seeing a storm roll in and then watching it and feeling (relatively) safe inside. Then I feel guilty because storms cause harm and kill people and ruin lives and cities and nations and civilizations. So here we have a moral dilemma. How can I justify getting pleasure out of something that causes so much harm? And this is what I'm thinking about as Gustav gets closer...