Clouds make noise.  I know they do because I hear them all the time.  It’s a loud, grumbling noise.  Like a jet.  Thing is, it’s no jet thunder, but the sound that a thick and dense and gray mass makes when it grumbles across the blue ocean sky.  The thin, white, fluffy excuse for clouds don’t do anything remotely impressive.

I told an old and true friend about the clouds and my theory of their grumble.  He laughed.  It wasn’t a good laugh, either.  It was a mean, mocking, malicious laugh that made me almost feel stupid.  I didn’t, though.  I felt sorry for him because in his world, a cloud couldn’t make noise.  Bad upbringing, I guess.

When he noticed that I wasn’t laughing, he collected himself and said, “Oh, you’re serious?”

I nodded.

He started laughing again and somewhere between chuckles he found enough breath to say, “That’s a jet flying above the clouds, stupid.”

The problem with his reason for the grumble was that it should have passed us in a doppler-effect of dissipated sound.  This grumble was lasting like it had some sustenance to it, like a grumble that happens and stays way before it has received enough satisfaction to stop grumbling.

To counter his argument, I said, “Well, I don’t see any jet smoke and that big-ass cloud ain’t big enough to cover the entire sky.  So my money is on that thick, gray cloud crawling above our heads.”

He laughed and shook his head.  “You’re crazy, bro.  Clouds don’t make noise.”

He laughed and probably still laughs when he thinks of that day when I taught him about the clouds.  But he’s wrong.  Clouds make noise.  To deny that they do is to deny their nature and their existence.  But, I should know better that we as people do all we can to deny nature.

People have a nature.  We deny that we do, but each one of us has a basic underlying natural order of the life contained in our souls.  But, we try to act against that natural order.  Plus, we try to deny that others have a nature to them.  For some, love rumbles through their soul and must be heard.  For others, pessimism and negativity are as part of their soul as the color of their eyes.  Regardless of what a person’s nature is composed, we cannot deny them their nature.

Part of what I see as the problem of human life is to try to fit everyone into boxes that we think that they should fit into.  We try like hell to force people to behave in ways that we think we should.  But, I think it’s better to help someone understand his or her world and place in it.  It’s better, for me, to help someone understand what a healthy life means.  I don’t see the point in wanting someone to be something he or she isn’t.  Just like I know that clouds make noise, I think we all have a natural place and purpose on this earth, even though others may not readily see our natural place and purpose.