Let it rain water, that is. Not ash.
We
almost didn’t get to see Pompeii because it was raining and the people who administer
the site close the ruins when the rain makes walking too treacherous. Fortunately
for us, they decided to keep the ancient city open that day. It wasn’t the best
weather for exploring the ruins or taking pictures, but we had a good local
guide and learned a lot. The rain even created some advantages. The guide told
us that the crowds would have been heavy and the lines much longer if the
weather had been good.
The
first photo shows the Greek amphitheater. You can tell it is Greek rather than
Roman because it is open on the stage side. The next photo shows how the
original residents handled the wet streets. Actually, it wasn’t the rain they worried
about. The streets were washed daily by sending a stream of water down them,
and anyone who was out at that time used the stepping stones to keep their feet
dry. (I stepped on them once for the experience but walked in the street.)
The final photo serves as a reminder of how Pompeii came to its end. Most residents
escaped when Mount Vesuvius erupted, but some ignored the warnings and died
from suffocation as they were buried by the ash from the volcano. Over time,
the bodies rotted away and left cavities in the soft rock. Archeologists poured
plaster into the holes and then chipped the soil away, preserving the form of
the bodies that had been there.
As
I said, Pompeii wasn’t at its best when we saw it, but it was still impressive.
And because the rain kept many of the tourists away, we got a better view of it
than we would have otherwise.
So
of course I thought of a writing analogy. Sometimes we experience serious personal
crises that require us to take time away from writing, just as the people who
administer Pompeii need to close it when the weather gets too bad. We get sick,
or a loved one dies, or something else demands our time, and we need to take a
break from writing to handle the situation. But in many cases the rain is an
excuse rather than a necessity. That’s when it’s important to write through the
rain.
And
who knows. It may also be when we achieve our most impressive results.
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