"Hear the whisper of the raindrops falling soft upon the window................"

Ray Price, Kenny Rogers, Perry Como, Eddy Arnold, Dolly Parton, Jim Reeves, Dean Martin, Crystal Gayle, Al Green, Anne Murray, Aaron Neville, Englebert Humperdink, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis all knew a good thing when they heard it. The ever popular 'For the Good Times', written by Kris Kristoffersen in 1970, earned Ray Price a Grammy when he took it to #1 on the country charts.

Freak storms, breached levees, and flooding caused by heavy rains and swollen rivers in the central states are becoming a frequent sight on the news.

However, none of that is happening in Chattanooga, Tn.

, so would certain local news personas who are not well versed on the environment please refrain from describing a rain shower in the Tennessee Valley as 'bad news'?

Coming in the middle of my morning coffee, I find your commentary on the weather quite disconcerting. Couldn't you just stick to the morning news and leave the weather to the 'weather man' who is fully capable of scaring us out of our wits all by himself?

Does a rainy weekend really have to begin with "……and now here's so-and-so (the weatherman) to tell you about the bad weather coming up for the weekend," followed by a forecasted 40 percent chance of showers or thunderstorms? What 40 percent probability usually means is that 60 percent of the viewing area will not get rain and therein lies the bad news.

I found such comments particularly thoughtless and perplexing coming in the midst of the devastating drought that hit the South last summer, a drought so severe that a bordering state to the south, due to years of mismanaging its own water supply, was fast running dry and had set its sights on stealing our river. Its governor had publicly issued a call for prayer…for rain.

Things were bad and the soaring 100-plus degree temperatures were not helping, yet in this blistering setting you prefaced the threat of rain as 'the weather isn't looking good…'' Now come on!

It's been a long time since the Tennessee Valley needed a good drying out. Unless we're in the throes of such a drought, seldom is the precipitation forecast in the Tennessee Valley anything to write home about.

But I try to give you the benefit of the doubt. I really do. I tell myself that maybe when I was a young and perky chicky, I, too, viewed rain as merely an inconvenience or a bad hair day and not through a broader scope. That maybe one needs to have a few years on them to realize it doesn't hurt us to dash through the mall parking lot in a little rain, or even a heavy cloudburst. That only in recent years did I learn to laugh at my frizzed hairdo and wrinkled cotton and know they are but temporary and not the end of the world.

For you, I offer a bit of unsolicited but age-earned advice. Not one in your TV audience will melt when dampened. And neither will you. I promise. But if you're still worried about it, life will be a lot easier and you won't have so many 'bad' weather days if you just keep an umbrella handy.

The next time rain is predicted, try to remember that fresh water is becoming a limited resource although it may be hard to hold that thought as we see miles and miles of river overflowing its banks.

Water is essential to life and without it we would die. Our bodies are made up of mostly water and our systems require water to continue.

Without rain, crops would die and our oceans would evaporate which in turn would kill the sea life including those tasty delicacies we harvest for food. Without the oceans, there would be no volcanoes. Volcanoes erupt in the depths of the ocean and create land masses. Those islands sustain life that is essential to our survival.

Rain sustains plant life and wildlife.

Dust storms would become so large that they would block out the sun. Without the sun, life on this planet would cease.

Try to imagine our sewer systems that, without water, would no longer operate. That vision alone should make you do a little dance every time it rains.

Your bottled water would be gone. If the fresh water springs die out and become dust bowls, there could be no bottled water. Or, the next time you sip a Coke over ice and feel its fizz on your nose, remember that you could not have that soft drink without water.

Weather used to be …well…just 'the weather' and rarely a cause for alarm. Showers and rumbling skies were welcomed for spring crops and gardens. Thunderstorms in the summer were a common occurrence. Heavy frosts were not unusual in the late fall. There was even a quaint poem called…'When the frost is on the pumpkin.’ And an occasional snow added a touch of beauty to otherwise dull winter months.

But ratings, satellites, and dopplar have changed all of that. Nowadays, most meteorologists seem to relish cries of doom, gloom, and run-for-cover than of sunshine and light. During the warm months, we no longer have showers, evening thunderstorms, or heat lightning. How long since we've heard, "There's a good chance your garden will get a good soaking this weekend." Instead, we are besieged with 'watches' and 'warnings' in the corners of our TV screens while, accompanied by a attention-getting series of warning beeps, the crawl across the bottom of the screen ominously tracks every raindrop.

Isn't it strange that rainy skies are no longer gray? That we search the skies not for thunderheads, but for iridescent green blobs that move in a jerky fashion and threaten to close in on us. I'm not suggesting that meteorologists should predict a sappy ' thirty percent chance of raindrops whisperin' soft upon your windows', but couldn't they just lighten up a little and welcome rain as the life sustaining gift that it is?

"But life goes on and this old world will keep on turning........"

If it rains.

Copyright 2008 Patricia Paris
Contact: PatriciaParis@gmail.com
Patricia Paris is an author/columnist from East Tennessee
Member: Tennessee Mountain Writers, Int'l Women Writers Association, Tennessee Writers Alliance, Chattanooga Writers Guild