Cyclone Dreaming 14 – El Nino; La Nina

El Nino; La Nina
Looking down the barrel of a mathematical model is like using a telescope and a microscope at the same time. It extends the limited capacity of our senses to see and feel the big picture and to recognise its inner structure. When modelling the relationship of ocean currents and the air above them a galaxy of numbers from vast areas of the earth, each representing heat and force that can be felt by the body, but only in one place at a time, are processed by computers that disclose something of the scale and structure of the energy exchange between ocean and sky. The observer "sees" and "feels" the whole event. S/he feels the cool water off the coast of Peru and the warmth of the Coral Sea and sees the sun driving the wind like a giant Ferris wheel over the equator, dropping down dry in the east, rushing west across the Pacific picking up water, and pouring it out over Australian and Asian landmasses. When s/he feels the eastern Pacific warming, lowering the pressure that forces the wind westward s/he knows that EL NINO will bring drought in Australia and Asia. And when LA NINA drives the temperature down off the Peruvian coast s/he knows that the big wet is coming in Australia. But because it doesn't always happen this way s/he feels the land, sea and sky continuously, watching for patterns in what s/he sees and feels, hoping for insight and understanding, and, occasionally, being drenched in wonder. At such moments the Poet s/he embodies addresses the wind and the ocean in person and hears their reply.

Perhaps, in time, s/he will know them as relatives who will share their family secrets ‑ their resonance of the cosmic dance – and respond to our performance of it.