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A quote: “Modernity, the child of the Enlightenment, failed when it became apparent that the good society cannot be achieved by unaided reason.” ~~ Robert Bork
I’ll start with a story …
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“Hon, wake up.”
“Huh?”
“Shhhh. Listen.”
“To …? I don’t hear anything. Lord, it’s black as pitch in here. What time is it?”
“Don’t know. The electricity is out. “
“Ok. This is why I still have my old Timex watch, you know ‘takes a licking …”
“How you going to find it, let alone read it?”
“Hey, former Boy Scout here and, yep, I can feel what I need in the drawer … … voila! Candlelight!”
“And?”
“Um … even my watch has stopped.”
“That does it. Bugout time.”
“I’ll saddle the horses while you get the bags.”
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Now, it’s your turn.
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.featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license.
“You had to be there.”
It’s said so often that it becomes a cliche. But there are times it really is true. And the Miracle of the Lightning Bolt was one of those times.
It was before my time. I’ve seen the news footage of that moment when Ioseb Lanakhidze raised his fist at the sky and yelled, “These people want a Tsar. Give them a Tsar,” only to be answered by a lightning bolt from a clear blue sky, like a giant “tag, you’re it, no give-backs.” So I know the basics of the events that led to the restoration of the Russian monarchy, albeit with a Georgian Imperial Family.
The histories we learn in school make it sound like every decent person immediately accepted this event as a a divine act, anointing Russia’s new Tsar not by oil, but electricity. But as we examine primary sources from immediately after, we see a strong difference between the reactions of those who were present and those who knew it only from news reports. Many of the latter were hesitant, if not outright hostile. In fact, many people here in the US had significant doubts — after all, this man was a clone of a ruthless dictator who’d filled mass graves in job-lots, and had played up that resemblance for the generation who’d once idolized the old butcher. But many critics carefully hedged around their objections, perhaps fearing that, were they wrong, they might become guilty of the Unforgiveable Sin, of ascribing to the Devil the works of the Holy Spirit.
Only slowly, as the witness of those who were present filtered outward, did world opinion slowly shift. And some never would, remaining stubbornly convinced that this was mass hysteria driven by superstition.
Dupin says: It was a dark highway now, though I’d left the desert and sun way behind.
I had the cool wind in my face, too. Outflow boundary from the thunderstorm ahead, and the VW Bug I’d hotwired was a Cabriolet. I had no clue how to put the top up, so I was going to get soaked.
Still, I’d scammed the dealers and had their cash and drugs in suitcases in the backseat. They’d stay dry.
I hit the deluge, wipers going full, and slowed to maybe twenty. Just keep moving was my mantra, but a roar to my left and the rain went sideways as the wind hit.
I threw myself onto the floorboards as the VW began to lift. ‘Toto, we’re not in Kansas’ mixed with ‘The rains in Africa’ in my mind, fighting to keep the realization at bay that this was unlikely to end well.
Navig8r says: “Wow! That had to be the radio tower.”
“The place is a lightning magnet. Over the decades, we lost three radio stations until they finally quit building there.”
“Guess the Occupation didn’t get the memo.”
“Or didn’t believe it.”
“Well, one less thing for the Resistance to blow up, and one less round of hostage executions to teach us a lesson. Didn’t you help build this one?”
“Shanghaied off the street when the Occupation needed ‘volunteers'”
“I wonder how much of the inside equipment got smoked.”
I refrained from mentioning how a few loose ground wires can enhance the effect.
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