The Way I See It

By:Curtis Morton
The way I see it, the scenario played out by Tropical storms Danny and Erika, reminds me of the story of ‘The boy who called Wolf.’
I know some of my younger readers do not have a clue what I am talking about so let me tell you the story:
‘There once was a shepherd boy who was bored as he sat on the hillside watching the village sheep. To amuse himself he took a great breath and sang out, “Wolf! Wolf! The Wolf is chasing the sheep!”
The villagers came running up the hill to help the boy drive the wolf away. But when they arrived at the top of the hill, they found no wolf. The boy laughed at the sight of their angry faces.
“Don’t cry ‘wolf’, shepherd boy,” said the villagers, “when there’s no wolf!” They went grumbling back down the hill.
Later, the boy sang out again, “Wolf! Wolf! The wolf is chasing the sheep!” To his naughty delight, he watched the villagers run up the hill to help him drive the wolf away.
When the villagers saw no wolf they sternly said, “Save your frightened song for when there is really something wrong! Don’t cry ‘wolf’ when there is NO wolf!”
But the boy just grinned and watched them go grumbling down the hill once more.
Later, he saw a REAL wolf prowling about his flock. Alarmed, he leaped to his feet and sang out as loudly as he could, “Wolf! Wolf!”
But the villagers thought he was trying to fool them again, and so they didn’t come.
At sunset, everyone wondered why the shepherd boy hadn’t returned to the village with their sheep. They went up the hill to find the boy. They found him weeping.
“There really was a wolf here! The flock has scattered! I cried out, “Wolf!” Why didn’t you come?”
An old man tried to comfort the boy as they walked back to the village.
“We’ll help you look for the lost sheep in the morning,” he said, putting his arm around the youth, “Nobody believes a liar…even when he is telling the truth!”
Now why does that story remind me of the recent storms?
Well I was at the Nevis Credit Union the day after Danny passed—well make that, ‘did not pass’ and the general talk was that the guys at the MET office ‘don’t know what they doing;’ government should not have given a day off;’ and such similar ‘ray-ray.’
You would think that the people were not happy that the storm did not pass and did not affect us. You would think that the people of Nevis would be in more of a spirit of praise and thanksgiving to the God who spared us.
Well I newa!
Further to that, it was mentioned that Erika was following in Danny’s path and again the general expressions from those who were most vocal were that ‘me aint preparing a thing,’ ‘it gonna be just like Danny;’ ‘all the Erika dem me know ah nice people…’
One guy stated openly: “Whenever, there is a storm, I put one bottle of rum under me bed and I go lie down.’
Well I newa!
So the general consensus of opinion was that ‘we aint preparing a thing!’
I tried to get a voice in and urged the same persons to prepare because we never know when something is going to happen but to no avail.
Well, after the fact, Erika passed and gave us quite a bit of rain but God once again protected us. Are we therefore more in his good books than the people of Dominica?
Oh no siree bob!
Trust me, one day, our turn will come and so we must PREPARE constantly. We can prepare PHYSICALLY within our feeble means but most importantly, we need to prepare SPIRITUALLY. We do not know when our island would be badly affected and we do not know when the death bell will toll for us personally.
So PREPARATION IS KEY.
That’s the way I see it. How do you see it?