Not, as it turns out, the same lightning, but if your life’s gone so wrong that you manage to get smited once, don’t give in to the temptation of hubris:
Don’t cavort in the rain in a ring of electric fence and wet taut tarp
Don’t grind against the flagpole shouting “drunk hump! drunk hump!” at the angry clouds
Don’t pretend that isn’t your hair crackling on the muddy soccer field and stay out there alone showing off your little footy tricks
Don’t guide the stunt kite through the storm with your flipped middle fingers
Don’t hunt for the tallest tree or the shiniest scaffolding or the most conveniently abandoned metal ladder and climb
Don’t tread water at the point in the pond farthest from every shore making loon sounds
Don’t think for a moment that whoever or whatever laid down the law that lightning must wander lonely doesn’t have a few adages of his own:
the exception makes the rule, never say never, nobody likes a know it all.
[pad 4.15 - 7/7/09]
