Last night I had another one of those annoying tornado dreams.
I have them all the time. I'm always the one trying to lead everyone to safety, yet no one is listening because they are all panicking. I'm the one who is in the safest place, while others are lifted from their feet, whisked off to godknowswhere. These dreams are so vivid. I can feel the wind blowing my hair and pushing my body around, and the sound of the wind is deafening. Objects fly at random, often coming close to hitting me as they continue past. My heart races, as I try to maintain some sense of order, and I am almost crying because I know that the people I am with aren't going to make it, because they stupidly ignore my directions.
I don't want to analyze this one. In fact, it's pretty damned evident what the dream means, and why I have it. The interesting thing about it, is this: I live in an area where the potential of a tornado touching down is very slim. Almost zero. Because of the 'lake effect', the conditions simply aren't suitable for it to happen. I don't happen to live on a major fault line either. There's as good of a possibility of me being involved in an earthquake disaster as seeing a twister touch down nearby. I guess, I've got a better chance of having an airplane crash in my backyard, because our area routinely has airplanes pass over as it is on the East to West corridor.
Which has always led me to ask, "Why the hell do people live in Tornado Alley, anyway?!!" I mean, the stakes are ever so much greater that your house is going to get picked up and moved across several statelines. It's a regularly occuring phenomenon. They do happen, a lot. So why bother living there? Why not just move to somewhere safe? Where you don't have to worry about listening for weather reports. Where you don't have to worry if it will all just one day be brought down to ruins?
And the same goes for those in California. Why live in a place where it's predicted that it will soon be 'one great waterworld attraction'? Do you want to be a star that badly? Do you love palm trees that much?
But, then I got to thinking... it's your home. You've grown up there, raised a family there, and simply lived there. A part of your life is entwined with the earth, and the elements around you. While you may not have been born in California, or any other place that is destined to go the way of Atlantis, there is something in you that sees it as a good part of yourself. I know that I live in as safe an area as possible. But anything can happen. I'll take my chances here, because, in the end, this is my home. And I don't think moving just anywhere can replace this ground that I've walked on, these buildings that I've lived in, and this air that I'm breathing.
Peace.