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No reasoning with this season

By JACK BRAY, Guest Columnist
Published June 1, 2007

'Tis the season to be jolted. If the howling wind and torrential rain don't do it, the alarming voices of the weather people will.

It's "Hurricane Season."

Exactly when did hurricanes that bring devastation join the club of seasons - Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's - that bring joy? And let us not forget the original club of natural seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter.

As if to herald a wonderful time of the year, we, first of all, have honored it by giving it that title of "Season."

Then, to add to the sense of a special time, we announce the names of the expected storms as if they were names chosen for our future children. Why do we name them? Is that just in case you forget the date your house was blown away? We even call them by personal pronouns, like they were people.

Will someone please tell me why there are predictions of how many hurricanes there will be? How is knowing that number going to help us? All it does is scare us to death. Well, maybe not that, but it will cause undue anxiety. Thank you very much, but personally, I have enough to worry about.

While the "Hurricane Guide" is important, and more than one is published, it just adds a tone of impending doom. Be prepared! Put your affairs in order! Have you made a Living Will? (Kidding). Maybe it's me, but the maps, evacuation routes, shelter locations, survival kit preparation, all seem too much. Survival, for heaven's sake!

And what can I say about the weathercasts? I have picked this bone before, but I still feel that discussing a "disturbance" off the coast of Africa is only going to feed our anxiety. Why do they continue to warn us? Geez, it's "run to the hills" time.

I know the weather forecasters mean well. Truthfully, though - and this may sound cynical - it seems to me that the drama served up with eye-popping technology is, in large part, a frenzied attempt to capture the lion's share of audience to get those treasured ratings that will bring more revenue.

It would help if the forecasts dwelled on just the one storm that is coming soon and not the two or three that are boiling behind it. Tone down and more will tune in. Betcha.

Alas, I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness of old age, someone who seeks but will never find the simplicity of yesteryear. That was a time when the best weathercasts were given by my mother. When I was a child leaving for school, she sometimes said, "Take your umbrella, I think it's going to rain."

Jack Bray of Dunedin is a retired broadcasting executive.

[Last modified June 1, 2007, 00:33:20]