Nature Notes #8

The recent warm spell did eventually make it as far north as Orkney and Shetland, and we enjoyed several days of temperatures over 20 degrees Celsius. It was very strange! Finally, however, and following the laws and strictures which govern such things, the weather broke one night with a mighty thunderstorm, freshening the air so that the landscape as well as its inhabitants gave a collective sigh of relief.

At the time, I was minded of a Rush lyric from the song 'Marathon' which featured on their 1985 'Power Windows' album:

"Like a streak of lightning, that flashes and fades in the Summer sky."

With the cosmic inevitability of an earworm and a waterproof Bluetooth speaker, at the end of the next working day I found myself in the shower listening to a couple of tracks from the album, though even bathroom acoustics couldn't help my singing.

The track before 'Marathon' is 'Manhattan Project', a topic which I guess is currently back in the news with the release of the film 'Oppenheimer'. Don't worry, there'll be no spoilers here, I haven't seen it. But these lyrics by the late Neil Peart have always struck me as thought-provoking:

Manhattan Project

Imagine a time
When it all began, in the dying days of a war
A weapon, that would settle the score
Whoever found it first
Would be sure to do their worst
They always had before

Imagine a man
Where it all began
A scientist pacing the floor
In each nation, always eager to explore
To build the best big stick
To turn the winning trick
But this was something more

The big bang, took and shook the world
Shot down the rising sun
The end was begun, it would hit everyone
When the chain reaction was done
The big shots, try to hold it back
Fools try to wish it away
The hopeful depend on a world without end
Whatever the hopeless may say

Imagine a place
Where it all began
They gathered from across the land
To work in the secrecy of the desert sand
All of the brightest boys
To play with the biggest toys
More than they bargained for

Imagine a man
When it all began
The pilot of Enola Gay
Flying out of the shock wave
On that August day
All the powers that be
And the course of history
Would be changed for evermore

Songwriters: Alex Zivojinovich / Gary Lee Weinrib / Neil Elwood Peart