On July 4th in one of the years I lived in Ft. Collins, CO, I drove up to the hills rising sharply between the town and Hosetooth Reservoir, like many others, to watch the fireworks in City Park. As the fireworks show progressed - and amidst everyone's oohs and aahs - a lightning bolt came down from the sky over the eastern plains (freak thunderstorms are common in that region), and completely dwarfed the man-made lightning.

Every so often something happens that reminds us who's boss. (There's a saying in Yiddish: Man tracht un gott lacht - man thinks [and plans] and God laughs.) Sometimes it's in the form of an almost humorous natural spectacle, sometimes in the form of a disaster of an unfathomable proportions.

Remember the recent thread about mountains, light, and God? When faced with vastness - good, bad, or just there - we cannot help but be reminded that there is something bigger than all of us and bigger than the sum of its parts, which we certainly cannot understand but must respect, and out of respect for it comes respect for one another and for our collective home in the universe, and hopefully, that respect would lead to a predominance of good.

The Red Cross is one charitable organization operating in the region; please consider others as well.

- Yaron