Sunday 5 September 2004

Pic of the day: This screenshot from Morrowind symbolizes the, uhm, rain and light and stuff.

After the rains

You've heard it in songs since you were little, I'm sure: After rain comes sun. A somewhat more cautious song circulates here in Scandinavia; I don't remember anymore who wrote it, a Danish woman I believe, but I have the Swedish version on a CD by Björn Afzelius. In translation it says:

It's said that after the rains the sun appears again;
But it rarely helps those who've gotten soaked.
For when friends disappear or when love comes to an end,
One sees things with somewhat different eyes...

I thought that this was overly cynical. After all, in summer at least the sun would have a dramatic warming effect on the wet and bedraggled people! There are indeed few things more effective than sun in such a situation.

But the singer did not explain in any more detail, and I wrote it off as emergency rhyme until today. I heard on the radio one more song "after the rains" and suddenly I thought: After the rains it tends to remain overcast for days. Yes, the sun appears eventually, but rarely just after the rain (except for local summer showers). So it really doesn't help those who got soaked: They have to deal with the problem in some other way, because if they wait for the sun they'll ruin their health before that happens.

I believe this is every bit as true when friends disappear or when love comes to an end. I've read (on LiveJournal admittedly) that when you break up, you must expect the heartbreak to last about half as long as you've been together. Actually I think for married people much of that time tends to be spent inside their existing marriage. Of course I don't really know anything about these things from personal experience, but it seems to me that many people only leave their marriage when they are ready to look for new love. After the clouds are gone.

My point, however, is this: After the rain comes not the sun but the cloudy days, and you need to take care of yourself during that time rather than wait for the sun.