Monday's Mountain: Struck by the Beauty of Lightning

"But who is more ignorant? The man who cannot define lightning, or the man who does not respect its awesome power?"  

-- Dan Brown in "Angels and Demons"

Not many fiction books on my bookshelf are bookmarked for later reference.  "Angels and Demons" is an exception.  The excerpt above comes from my placeholder for several pages of deep conversation about the battle between science and religion.  I've had my battles with both.

Science has never been easy for me.  Short, little Mr. Woods stood in the front of the high school chemistry class waving his arms with vigor so we'd know how protons and neutrons functioned.  It was summer school.  After I rolled a paper towel, I lit it with the bunson burner and began to smoke it like it was a cigarette.  Smoke was everywhere, and we were excused for the rest of class, so about two hours (I'm sorry but I'm still not sorry).

The year before, I'd taken Biology in summer school. I only pretended I dissected the frog.  Poor frog.  He started out being dead and soaked in formaldehyde, and he ended up in the trash, not properly dissected at all (ok, I'm sorry).  If there was redemption from these violations to science, it was after college, when I worked at a science museum in North Carolina and also after my MBA when I did technology lending.  Oh wait, did I mention that in college, I married a scientist?

Then there's religion.  I've had a checkered religious past, though certain pieces of the foundation (my mom was raised Methodist and my Dad was raised Catholic) were written in indelible ink.  We went to a non-denominational church, but I quit going after junior high.  And I became Mormon at 19.  My Mormon boyfriend came back from his mission the week of my wedding to my ex-husband.  I was confirmed Catholic after my divorce.  Someone asked me a couple weeks ago what religion yoga is ... maybe they thought I was changing paths yet again.  No.  I'm at peace with my own spiritual path, which is far different than a religion in my view.  

Anyway, back to where I started ... lightning.  I love watching storms. I'm mesmerized by the magnificent, sheer power of a light show in the heavens.   The thunder only adds to the turbulent drama in the skies.

Suffice it to say, I have offended both religion and science, repeatedly.  And at times simultaneously.  But in spite of whatever storms of life I might have, the rainbows always come.

The photos were taken by my daughter, Angela Fairbanks, during a recent Utah storm.  Enjoy!