Hello Dolly?

Tropical Storm Dolly mustered up enough strength to become Hurricane Dolly this afternoon.  Hurricane warnings were posted all along the southern Texas coastline up toward Houston.   Here we go, brace for impact.

I always find myself getting caught up in the theater of weather.  As destructive as these storms are and the human and property tolls left in their wake is clearly serious, I can't help but be fascinated by hurricane season.

I think I know why: we as "civilized" Americans like to give cutesy names to things in nature.  We have pets we name Arthur  and Sammy.  We have wild animals in captivity we name Montecore, Shamu and Tyk.  And big storms that flatten cities, we name Dolly and Katrina.  As a product of doing this, we form human-ish connections to the very thing that can reasonably destroy us.  So when the news stories break with an associated "girl/boy-next-door" or clever name, right away we are drawn in.  And since we now have an emotional link to the storm (or rampaging elephant), we can't help but feel something - whether it's anger toward the wind and rain or a sympathy toward the poor beast who gets shot for being themselves.   It's very sad when people's lives are unavoidably ruined when they  intersect with Mother Nature at her worst.  But when it can be avoided, such by not putting your head in that tiger's mouth, then let's take the safe approach and let the tiger be a tiger and do something else.

And why is just hurricanes?  We don't assign cute human names to earthquakes, firestorms or tornados...although earthquake Suri has a nice ring to it.

Personally, I think we should stop naming our storms and wild animals.  They aren't elements of humanity and should be kept in their proper, respected place in nature.  Something that can level a city in a matter of hours should not be trivialized with the same name as a plasticized Country singer or a one-hit-wonder crooning "Walking on Sunshine."  

Anyway to those in the path of the hurricane, I wish you luck.