Chapter 28 lightning strike

I was thinking wildly in front of a window of rain and fog, when suddenly my eyes lit up and the soles of my feet felt numb, which made me jump up involuntarily, not knowing what happened. It wasn't until after smelling a scorching smell that I suddenly realized: It's thundering!There is indeed a little movement in my memory, it seems to be a muffled sound just now. This dull thunder must have hit my house, otherwise the floor and walls would not be electrified, let alone my bare feet.I nervously thought: something should be done.I quickly moved away from the window, and quickly checked the situation at home, and found that although there was no fire in the house, the computer screen was black, the fax machine was smoking, there was no sound from the phone, and there was no picture on the TV. The electric water heater in the bathroom couldn't be turned on either... Except for a freezer at the westernmost end of the house that was still working, all five electrical appliances in the house were destroyed, a civilized world collapsed in an instant, and there was a dead silence.

I told my family loudly: "We were struck by lightning!" But they all laughed at me, thinking I was joking, until I said it again loudly, their faces became tense, and they flocked to review the situation in a hurry. After staying in the city for a long time, I have no concept of thunder and lightning.I didn't know that besides the wind and the sun and the flowers and grass and green, nature sometimes slaps a big slap in the face.The interaction between man and nature and the unity of man and nature, which Confucian scholars have repeatedly praised, are sometimes carried out in a brutal way.

Needless to say, the process of repairing various electrical appliances is troublesome and useless.I had to drive out into the city to go door to door for delivery and pickup.With the help of an electrician friend from the Municipal Broadcasting Bureau, the lightning protection ground wire of my house was also buried—this required digging a one-meter-deep trench, like digging a long circle of trenches, and then planted more than a dozen holes at the bottom of the trench. The thick triangular steel was welded, excavated and hammered... The vastness of the project and the time-consuming and labor-intensive construction shocked me a lot.I regretted that I didn't know the heights of the sky and the earth, and asked my friends for help rashly.

In fact, grand projects don't quite work either.Before leaving, my friend secretly told me: Fortunately, it will be better, but it is not perfect.In a thunderstorm, it is best to pull the switch, and you must be good at avoiding it. I am a little dumbfounded.If I knew this earlier, why should I be so tired? What's more, how can I avoid it?Country people do not have the shelter of urban buildings, exposed to the vast wilderness, exposed to the range of lightning, and become targets that nature can bombard at any time.If you are too poor to afford a lightning rod, people are largely resigned to their fate.Everyone understands this, so they ingeniously seek other methods of self-preservation. For example, when they hear thunder approaching, they have to quickly check their filial behavior.Temporary remedies are also common: ask the old father if he wants to eat meat, ask the old mother if he wants to make cotton trousers, ask grandparents if they want to beat their backs—the voice must be loud enough that God can hear it; It must be publicized. For example, emergency meat cutting is best carried out with great fanfare outside the door, so that God can see it clearly at a glance. "If you don't do bad things, you won't be afraid of being struck by lightning!" They generally think so.

What else could they do?There is nothing they can do.Thunder and lightning can be attacked by air at any time. A person who cannot use material means to protect himself can only hide in a psychological imagination to give himself peace of mind. For many urbanites, the sound of thunder no longer means killing, at best, it is just a bluff intimidation, or even just a stage effect of an urban drama, for example, a kind of entertaining high-decibel percussion music - so, Of course, people no longer need to ask old fathers if they eat meat, old mothers if they wear cotton pants, and grandparents if they have back pain...Unfortunately, perhaps this is how filial piety declines, in a broader sense The sense of awe and sacredness may also decline in this way.Many of our other delusions may be secretly breeding under the cover of science.

That is to say, once people can protect themselves with material means, maybe the spirit becomes superfluous?