Rain: Between the illusion of control and the blessing of humility

Source: The prophecy of the plow: When work turns into magic

"In this miracle of progress, the plow was the unerring prophet, the procuring cause... not by any magic or enchantment... but instead by the sweat of his face... man can persuade the heavens to yield their treasures of dew and rain... and to be more concise, Rain follows the plow."

Charles Dana Wilber, *The Great Valleys and Prairies of Nebraska and the Northwest*, 1881:

Explanation: A dangerous theory: The pseudoscience of the Wild West

In the 19th century, at the height of westward expansion in the United States, a pseudoscientific theory was promoted claiming that agricultural activity alters the climate. The premise: breaking the hard earth releases moisture, which evaporates and brings rain. It served as a moral and "scientific" justification for settling the arid West. Man, it was claimed, could turn a desert into a blooming garden through hard work and the Protestant ethic.

Perspective: From Genesis to the Dust Bowl: Who works for whom?

The outcome of this Protestant conviction was a disaster. The "Dust Bowl" of the 1930s—a combination of severe drought and several decades of destructive agricultural practices, such as stripping native grasses to plow wheat fields and overgrazing—caused severe soil erosion across the Great Plains and displaced hundreds of thousands of Americans. It should be noted that this theory was not invented in the 19th-century United States, but in chapter 2 of Genesis: "No shrub of the field was yet on earth, and no grass of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no human to work the ground." That is, without human labor there is neither rain nor growth; yet the difference lies in the question of whether the earth works for man, or man works for the earth.

Going Deeper: Moisture accelerators and chaos: When man plays God

Attempts to tame the rain have never ceased. In 1915, the San Diego city council hired one Charles Hatfield, inventor of the "moisture accelerator," to fill its depleted reservoirs. After Hatfield set up his moisture accelerator above the regional Morena Dam, torrential rains soon arrived, inundating the area and destroying dams, leading to the deaths of about 20 people. Whether Hatfield was a scientist or a charlatan, we do not know, but modern man remains caught in a vicious cycle: attempting to engineer the skies (until recently, by cloud seeding with silver iodide), and reaping chaos in return.

Culture: The rain people: A blessing from the margins

Two well-known works share the name 'Rain People.' One is Rachel Shapira's enchanting song, "The Rain People"—those who live under bridges, hidden and destitute, yet are people of grace. The second is Barry Levinson's film Rain Man, where Dustin Hoffman plays an autistic man living on the margins of society in a psychiatric hospital, who becomes the redeemer of the brother (Tom Cruise) who never knew he existed. In both works, rain serves a dual purpose: as a symbol for those on the fringes of society, under umbrellas, wrapped in coats; and on the other hand, as those who extend grace to someone in need, just like rains of blessing.