David Clark
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(crack of thunder)

Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow for the Weather Notebook and it is that sound that inspires our essay today from commentator David Clark:

DC: I remember being about 3 or 4 years old. I was deathly afraid of thunder. I was lying on my bed, which was right under a window. I was crying like a banshee. Before the choir director at church who sang 'How Great Thou Art' and later the great quarterback Johnny Unitas, my first hero was my 10-year-old brother. Brother Ralph came in our bedroom and sat down on the bed. He told me not to be afraid of the thunder.

"But I am afraid."

"But don't be afraid, it's just God bowling."

My brother gathered me in his arms.

"What's bowling?"

Distracted by the description of a celestial game of gargantuan ten pins being scattered across the sky by a huge old man with a long flowing beard, I soon sat up and gazed out the window in wonder at a world I'd never comprehended. Now I know my brother boondocked that story from something else - was it Rip Van Winkle? But that was the beginning of my fascination with thunder and lightning. One of my favorite things to do is walk outside at night when the sky is cracking and heaving. I no longer see God as the old man with the beard, and I'm not sure if God bowls or not. But there is a majesty to thunder and lightning that is humbling and exalting at the same time, sort of like looking at the ocean. I feel that sense of smallness beside such grandeur, but at the same time my heart gets bigger because I've witnessed it.

David Clark, a frequent contributor to The Weather Notebook, comes to us with his stories, from his hometown of Cochran Georgia. Our show is underwritten by Subaru, the beauty of all wheel drive with major support provided by the National Science Foundation.