Working Up a Storm

Storms always present an interesting challenge.  Does one work at the computer when lightening is striking nearby trees?  Is it safe to take the computer into the shower?  What are the odds, really, of death by electrocution?

These were the things I was thinking about the past three days as I wrote during the storms.  Every time I flinched under the bolt of lightening or jumped at the crack of thunder I wondered:  Should I be writing while tree limbs are falling around me?

Perhaps writers like me should adopt the mail-carriers motto:  Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow . . . nothing shall stay this writer from his appointed rounds.

On Sunday morning I rose at 4 a.m. to write for three hours . . . yes, Virginia, a pastor can write on Sundays and still preach a sermon.  Sunday morning was, however, a veritable lightening-fest and these were not make-belief bolts. 

But I pressed on, as I had deadlines to meet and four essays to deliver by week's end.  Somebody had to write 'em, and it may as well be me.  Who else was willing to work under such harsh conditions? 

Later, when my wife and I next met on Sunday evening for dinner (long days, these Sundays), she asked, "What time did you get up this morning?" 

"Four," I said.  "I hope I didn't wake you up."

"No.  But the thunder woke me.  You had disappeared."

Not disappeared, I reminded her.  Just working in a lightening storm.