Someone once asked "What's in a name?". Judging by the rash of hurricanes determined to batter Florida, I'd have to say there's one heck of a lot of wind and rain in some names. I've often wondered why we have this penchant for naming things and who started it. We name our pets, our cars, our boats and, in some cases, various parts of our anatomy and we always tend to give them strong or cute or classy names. The same premise applies to naming hurricanes. Look at Charley for instance. The name Charley conjures up images of a laid-back, good old boy but someone forgot to tell hurricane Charley as he tore through Florida. Frances on the other hand brings to mind teachers or librarians. Who hasn't had a teacher whose motto was " You'll do it over and over and over again until you get it right". Frances lived up to her name in a seemingly unending effort to blow down or drown as much territory as she could before the end came. Now, here comes Ivan.....yep, Ivan the Terrible....and watching the latest updates, he could easily embody the traits of his namesake.
What would happen if we gave these storms less personal names? Perhaps we could influence the physche of hurricanes if their names came from the seven dwarfs or a cartoon character or even one of the endless nicknames we've all grown up with. Maybe if we called Charley "Chubby" or "Clumsy" he would have slipped quietly out to sea, too embarassed to make much of an appearance. And surely if Frances had been "Floppy" or "Frumpy" she wouldn't have wanted so much attention. We could even adopt the George Forman approach and give them all the same name and discourage these storms from developing their individual personalities. Granted this is not a scientific approach but, who knows, it might work.
Whatever we call them, hurricanes are frightening, destructive things. Much as I'd like to rename Ivan to "Icky", I can only watch with my heart in my throat as he barrels towards Florida. My thoughts and my prayers are with my family in Palm Harbor and Clearwater and with all the other victims of Charley, Frances and Ivan. Mother Nature has a mind of her own and we can only hope she will take Ivan in hand and lead him away from land and people to blow himself out in open waters. Meanwhile, be safe my family and, to everyone in harm's way, we're thinking of you and hoping for the best.