lightning – Observations and Misunderstandings

There was a little drama and excitement in the boatyard today. While I was having a great time last night having a danger shower in the rain and lightning storm, a boat went and fell over. Exactly how this happened is unclear as I wasn’t a witness and whether it happened in the night during the storm is also unclear as they were only messing around early afternoon rectifying it, but I am going to create the link. There wasn’t the greatest deal of damage, only some chips in the gelcoat as you can see from the picture below and in another spot what appeared like a small hole in the fibreglass which will be easy to fix.

I remember a few years ago a friend of mine, the guy whose boat I sailed on that very first time actually, had a similar situation with his yacht. He was unfortunate enough that the boat next to his toppled along with a few others in a wild storm, smashing a big hole in the side of his. Purely by fortunate chance todays boat somehow managed to find itself leaning in an empty space between two other boats. While watching them lift it up I did what all boat people do and decided the people actually doing the work were doing it wrong. As you can see from the picture they appear to be using the keel for support which seems completely crazy and must be putting so much strain on it. I would not like to sail that boat without some kind of structural engineer giving it a thorough check.

Boats are stressful. They are worth so much money and I can see why people spend most of their time worrying about their own. The yard were very lucky the owners weren’t around, I can’t imagine the drama had they been. I hope it wasn’t anyone’s fault though and simply a result of the weather. Let’s hope they’re insured for an act of god though otherwise in the worst case scenario they may have just lost themselves a lot of money. Saying all of that I decided recently that I would like to have my own boat, probably to live in. The problem is that likely I’ll go for some cheap thing I think I can do up and it’ll all be great until some engineer tells me that the keel is structurally unsound because of a likely incident in a boatyard. That’s twice I now know of, perhaps these things are more common than first thought.

I sit tonight with thunder and lightning as a backdrop of sorts. I say of sorts because I am in a taverna and despite attempting to position myself looking outside there are still too many lights and people around to feel the full affects of such weather. In fact all these people and children kill any mood I felt prior to entering. There is always something atmospheric and intense with thunderstorms, especially those in hotter countries not used to rains all year round. The intensity is understandable, I imagine if they could measure the energy build up inside a storm, they probably can, maybe that’s what weather balloons do, they would discover it to be powerful. I suppose it is that strength which creates the burst of electricity that is lighting. Is the lightning a release though, is there a decrease in energy once it has struck. Can we compare this to the human mind?

I can use Greeks as an example. It is probably a little ignorant and lazy. Greeks are known for let’s say having an argumentative character. It is a lazy stereotype but for the sake of this argument, let’s assume it is true. It has felt when I’ve been embracing elements of this culture in the past, that the loud arguments have been a form of release. That sometimes we wouldn’t even be arguing over something we were actually angry about but simply looking for this excuse to release a build up of energy. The stereotype about the Greeks then is lazy because this is clearly something done by all, this is a game played in Scotland too for sure. The point is though that this energy must still go somewhere. I don’t know what happens once lightning strikes. What happens to the power that fires towards the ground. The power in an argument is hardly visible but you feel it and you hold onto it, perhaps it’s the same with the lightning strike. This I clearly don’t know.

I do know arguments though and I do know that I am capable and therefore others too of holding on to that energy. We see the other person relaxed and happy after their release but we’re a quivering ball of someone else’s anger. Our own toxicity levels increasing in the moment. Perhaps this is why some people are described as toxic. Toxic substances poison just as toxic people do too. We can’t ignore the fact if others do it to us then certainly we do it to others too. We can’t just spend our lives avoiding those we deem toxic in the hope of not becoming part of some cycle though, this is no way to live life. We must learn to live and not absorb, don’t take in their bullshit. See it and brush it off. I’m not sure why I got into this. I just wanted to talk about thunderstorms. It’s amazing how the mind wanders and relates.

Tag: lightning

Drama In The Yard

A Toxic Storm