Temperaments of Rain

Indulge me...my blog is turning into a creative writing project. For a quick update- I had a great day, I got a candy package!!! THANK YOUUUU!!! Happy Valentines! LOOOOVE! And every little thing that could go right did. Finally. I'm off to Rome tomorrow and I'll be there till Sunday! Woo! And also. Pidgeons have emerald collars and dear old Elia who run's Elia's cafe at school is adorable and I look forward to my caffe latte always. She and her husband call me "carina. bella." (as they do to everyone), and it makes me so happy! The end.

  

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From my bed this morning I could hear the rain. The interesting part is that I knew by its sound just what kind of rain it was- you hear it being sloshed, shushed and splashed aside by passing wheels and you can picture it- parted by the dirty treads, breaching onto the curbs and settling in stagnant pools of mud, oil, city scrub and pancaked layers of gum. This type of rain makes you feel chilled and clammy and in fact, like a clam, I find myself walling up and refusing to open my door. Lucky for me, the clouds broke in the late afternoon to let the sun in, and it turned out to be a wonderful day.

I once heard a line from a movie that profoundly stated, "God is in the rain". From then on I would occasionally feel compelled to sing, hum or pray aloud to these droplets of God, although usually in whispers. A group of scientists actually discovered that by speaking aloud to a freezing drop of water, the form or pattern that the snowflake would take on depended on the word it "heard". Ugly, brute and jagged patterns would form for those flakes that heard, "hate", "sorrow", or "war". On the other hand, the snowflakes that heard "love", "beauty" or "friendship" were inclined to create beautiful, symmetrical and elaborate patterns. Having been inspired by this discovery, I like to keep my whispers always cheerful and positive with the hope that the rest of the world (being touched by this listening rain) will share in the good wishes that were released among them. Everyone could use a little love on a gray day.

I'm one to believe that there are many varying temperaments of rain. There's four-year-old tantrum rain, surprise-you-without-your-umbrella rain. There's salty rain and painful rain, gentle kissing rain and seems-to-be-coming-from-the-ground-up rain. It can be needed, it can tease. It can love you dearly or it can tear you apart. This is the start of my analysis-a science project of my own where I will categorize and name all types of rain so someday they can put them in text books where kids can learn about their properties-their sounds, textures, their effects, the kinds of clouds they came from and how these things relate, their likes, their dislikes, their colors and their vices... This is just a taste.

First, there's angry, pounding rain (element name: APR). APR beats down on your head and shoulders, floods views from window panes and falls in diagonal gusts as if to say "I am an emperor of clouds and of air. You will compromise for me today"...or however long this rain may reign.

There is also the light, whispy kind (LWR) . An incredibly shy kind of rain that you barely feel and only notice as it gathers in group form out of fear. This is fog (FOG). A droplet's own personal "school of fish" so to speak. "Strength in numbers" this skittish rain believes. Usually this kind doesn't really want to bother you, so you may only notice it after walking a block or so and discovering that it's drops have accumulated and are now falling from your cheekbones like tears and driping down your temples like persperation.

Third, there is the kind of rain that the gardener prays for-to quench the ground and wet the tongue's of flowers. This rain releases earth smells and if you stand quitely amidst it with your face to the sky and your mouth open, you too might find yourself feeling quenched, baptized, fresh, alive.

And then there's dead rain, (DR, also known as RIP. You may see RIP on tombstones- a tribute to the ancient greek saying, "rain into pergatory" which was recited at the passing of a loved one. Pergatory, at the time, was a word for the afterworld with no negative connotations). Some people welcome this mirror to their emotions and find it cathartic to a gray disposition. To others, it is heart wrenching. This kind of rain pours down on funereal scenes like a dense shroud. It chills the air drastically and permeates your tightest knit sweaters. It will drench your so called "rain jacket" and with its icy fingers reach deep into your body despite your skin-like a phantom's palm passes through a brick wall. The chill of dead rain is absorbed by your bones where it will settle. You will not warm for hours.

And what about sun showers? Personally this may be my favorite kind of rain. This kind is gentle, sudden and refreshing. The sun still shines yellow and warm and you might not even see the cloud that housed this glittering spray. This rain likes to tickle your skin and play on eyelashes. If rain could laugh, sun showers would give off bubbly little bursts as it hit the ground and conjured rainbows out of nowhere. As soon as it arrives, it is gone.

Obviously there are countless kinds of rain and so far we've uncovered only a few. Contributions to this study are welcome. Please send any discoveries or data to

Emily Schonberg,
c/o Syracuse University in Florence,
Piazza Savonarola, 15
50132, Firenze
Italia

Grazie mille.