"A story was once written, which was later made into a movie at
least twice, with the brief and interesting title of "Rain."
And the story took place out on a South Pacific coral island with
coconut growers, traders and sailors. And there was the usual bar,
loud all the time with human voices, shouting sometimes angrily,
sometimes in impulsive delight or surprise. Just plain active, but
sad and worried human beings, drinking and talking business, being
angry with each other and trying to deceive each other. All this
was, of course, the story of human beings anywhere, any time, any
place.
All the time that this low-level behavior was going on, the rains
were coming down, all the time endlessly during the whole story.
And the rain itself was superb symbolism - an awesome force,
lightning and thunder going with it, and you don’t understand it,
it’s overpowering, you can’t stop it, you can’t control it, it
controls the way you feel and think, threatening to burst through
the thin roofs - and it's confining.
Now, we have the picture of people being confined within their own
natures, that’s what human beings are, knowing that the experiences
and the pains and the heartache and people hurting each other, and
knowing, just as you know, that the future will be a repetition of
the present unless the present is changed.
I am hammering home a point and you must get this point because it
is the only thing that is going to give you the urgent wish to walk
toward the door no matter how frightening the storm is, and it will
make you want to go somewhere else.
There’s no such thing as you knowing too much about your own
confined life with the rain coming down on you, no such thing as
knowing too much."
from a talk given 8/3/1986
Vernon Howard's Higher World - MP3 CD Volume 5, talk 112, track 8
