Blue Skies and Weather Reports

In an essay by William Zinser entitled “Blue Moons and Buttermilk Skies”, he seems to yield to nostalgia. Zinser compares modern weathercasters to singers and songwriters of yore. I admit to feeling a kinship with the essayist on the inadequacy of science in dealing with our emotions. So many songs and poems talk about the moon, the stars, sunshine, stormy weather. Weather seems magical and mysterious to the poets, but not to the meteorologists who want to tell us why it is not going to rain. Their maps and charts give them a chance to explain rain shadows and cumulonimbus clouds. Weather predictors have reduced the weather to what computer models tell them will happen. One wonders if they ever step outside and observe.

I do depend, at least partially, on weather reports to plan future activities. I do recognize the weathercasters education, training, and skill. However, I also admire the old time farmers and sailors who read the sky and tasted the wind to predict coming storms. They gave us sayings like, “Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.” Their wisdom came from experiencing weather phenomenon.

I take delight in the way poets play with words to connect weather with love, lost loves, happiness, sorrow, longing, wanderlust, and more. You can probably think of many examples. “Red Sails in the Sunset”, “Blue Moon”, “They Call the Wind Mariah”. Wordsmiths use metaphors and similes. Blue skies smile, the sky brushes clouds away, people walk on the sunny side of the street, folks like sunshine on their shoulders but not in their eyes (it makes me cry). Pennies drop from Heaven, Stars fall on Alabama, the moon shines on Pretty Red Wing. Such songs live in my memory.