One staple in a lit major’s diet is the required regimen of Romantic Literature, not this kind – this kind.  Being somewhat of a city dweller, I felt – let’s say incompetent – when reading Keats because I never understood the fascination with the natural world.  I admire stone and structures, modern marvels and machinery, I never felt a deep connection with nature and when I tried to connect with it I found I became quickly irritated.  Once I attempted lying on a blanket outside to read a book – a battle quickly lost to nipping bugs and itchy grass.  I tried hiking the Bluff Overlook trail at Castlewood park to have a picnic lunch and became bored with the scenery in short order.  I went skydiving and while I was supposed to be marveling at the view from high I was plagued by the fresh pain in my newly burst ear drum as a result of not listening to the instructor and opening my mouth during the jump.  After years of failed attempts to connect with the great outdoors, I think I may have found my nature hook.  I am fascinated with the power and force of natural disasters and severe weather.

This afternoon I returned from lunch to find a funnel cloud had been spotted a few miles from my office.  My heart was racing and I opened every online weather source I could think of to track the tornado and weather shifts.  I was so excited, running to the windows to see the clouds and try to spot the rotation the county sirens spoke of.  I watched as my Twitter friends chatted about what they could see, what they knew, and how close they were to impending disaster.  But I didn’t just watch it - I relished in it.  I think I have found my connection with nature, but it is not a bond forged through camping or fishing.  I stand amazed at the shear power nature has to upend a day or a city.  And that, my friends, is why I will never be a world renowned poet, but I can tell you when severe weather is lurking and which radar sites are the best for tracking it.  Doppler radar (truly a modern marvel) has helped me find both nature and the Romantics.  It has been years since I turned in my last critical paper on that literary movement, and I doubt my new found ”connection” would help my reading, but it might be fun to pick up some old Nortons just to see if it has.