7 Thoughts on (Nothing But) Storms
I. Storm: A disturbance of the normal atmospheric condition. A violent state; bad weather.
Who judges what is normal, what is good (weather) and what is bad?
II. Some days I feel the composition of my atmosphere slowly changing, particles getting heavier, others dissolving. Several high-pressure areas in my guts. A biological rage.
You are a hurricane in the making, my horoscope app tells me on Wednesday, August 4.
III. When your body’s immune system spins out of control, its molecules start a hyperactive fight that is all weapons and no plan, “morphing from obedient soldiers into an unruly, torch- and pitchfork-bearing mob”. [1] These so-called cytokine storms can result from infections, carelessly caught from summers full of sex and swimming in Spain, a world-wide pandemic, or when suffering from an autoimmune disease (storm troopers turning against everything including their own).
“First a thin, nervous sizzle of crazy brightness, and then, in the space of a heartbeat, one, two, three rapid massive channelled strokes of electrical hell…” [2]
IV. “IPCC report shows extreme weather events will worsen” [3]: With every additional ppm of warmth, the Washington Post and the World warn, tropical cyclones, hurricanes, and other storms increase in intensity and likeliness.
“This is Condition Chaos. Condition Chaos cannot be reversed”. [4]
V. With every surplus of CO2 in the atmosphere, I feel like I’m getting crazier. Ozone makes me nervous, and methane makes me mad. I am no liquid and all gas.
Are you a natural disaster, or are you just an asshole?
VI. Since ever, storms have been feared as punishments from raging gods (Zeus, with a little help from Aiolos). But madness can be more than two things: insanity as a pathological illness (King Lear), and extreme, undiagnosed anger (me).
How would I rate on the Fujita Scale?
VII. What if the universe’s final sentence turned our very selves into storms, leaving us staggering under a hormonal sky? There’s no way out and others learn to hate you.
(You can always get used to fear.)
“My storm is my own… Enter if you dare”. [5]
References:
[1] https://knowablemagazine.org/article/health-disease/2020/what-cytokine-storm.
[2] Sterling, Bruce: Heavy Weather, New York: Bantam Books 1994.
[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/08/09/ipcc-2021-extreme-weather-climate/.
[4] Spinrad, Norman: Greenhouse Summer, Golden, CO: ReAnimus Press 2013.
[5] Alison, Virginia.
