Incidental Fall-Out

Imagine this, if you will; a series of unerringly unforgivable improbabilities. Science and technology have gifted humankind in hugely magnificent ways over the millennia with the clever creativity of brilliant minds discovering one advantage to the human race after another, gradually building to a crescendo of accomplishment, where we find ourselves now, in the 21st Century.

We have been incredibly enriched by medical discoveries and mechanical devices which enable us to manipulate our surroundings to an incalculable degree, advancing human life and enriching the human experience by permitting us to live in a manner our forbears would never have been able to imagine. We have become - almost - lords over our very near universe.

Not, admittedly, the Universe, nor even our little Constellation, not yet even our meagre Globe, one among many in the vastness of the great unknown atmosphere that surrounds us, holding us in thrall to our brilliant Sun, itself a minuscule portion of the hugeness and imponderability of the entire Universe.

Given the audacity of human nature in its never-ending quest to conquer all unknowns by furthering knowledge, anything, however, is possible.

We are, as a species, so assured of our supreme abilities to use our intuition, the genius of our enquiry, the determination of our assertiveness in discovery, that we assume, at times, to control the truly unconquerable: divine Nature. Nature, which holds its supremacy over all and therefore truly divine, as opposed to the nature of a Divine supranatural Being of whose presence we merely extend faith.

Would any human being seek to control God? That omniscient, omnipresent Being whose existence remains a mystery never to be taken too lightly by believers? Yet here is Mother Nature whose temperamental ways are such that on the slightest of her whims she is capable of destroying our puerile physical constructs, our very selves. Nature can be beneficent, for she kindly permits us to partake of abundant harvests.

But she can also become baleful, malicious, utterly destructive. She, and her assistants; fire, wind, rain, earthquakes, are capable of cataclysmic upheavals. The symbols and symptoms of her over-archingly stern majesty are manifestly present, their destructive influence on our environment clearly seen, if not quite understood.

Yet while none seek to offer insult to God, we challenge the supreme authority of Nature.

Chinese scientists have perfected a methodology of altering weather systems; if not "perfected", then assuring themselves that they've developed a formula by which they seek to thwart Nature's intent. Not in any truly substantive manner, but in such a way as to be sufficient unto the day. In the province of Inner Mongolia, the local weather bureau, foreseeing the probability of heavy hail, took remedial action.

They undertook an action often practised for any number of reasons; occasionally to clear up liquid-sodden clouds to avert heavy rains which might impact on some ceremonial occasion: the recent Olympics in Beijing, for example. This time, it was for the purpose of breaking up the threat of impending hail, to protect the local tobacco crop. One supposes they were successful in their purpose.

But to all actions, however slight, there are aftermaths and often consequences not quite foreseen. There is an intersection, an interaction between that interruption in Nature's intended hailstorm, and the fortunes of a man, Wang Diange, who had been overseeing the wake ceremony of a family funeral. He, and other mourners were conscious of an explosion, and then the roof of the dwelling collapsed.

The effect of a lightning strike. Nature again; not to be trifled with, always mischievous, surprising humanity by the spontaneity of Her climate-altering feints. It was assumed that Wang Diange had died as a result of a natural catastrophe. Caused by the hugely thunderous impact of the storm raging overhead, and the resulting lightning strike that ravaged his body.

At his funeral a few days later, his body was in preparation of insertion into a cremation chamber. When suddenly, Wang Diange's body appeared to explode, the force of which burst the oven doors. The fire that resulted was extinguished, and the astounded people present saw a small piece of twisted metal, hot and glowing. There was their lightning.

Investigators came to the realization that one of the shells that had been fired into the sky hadn't exploded, fell to earth, impacted on the house occasioning the thunderous crash, and deposited itself into Mr. Wang's body. Its presence undetected because of the dreadful injuries done his body by the presumed lightning strike.

Nature's casual response to heedless hubris.