Infamy Isn't As Great as It Sounds

From: Mia Cope

A couple of months ago, when I was much younger, I thought it would be really exciting to have a hurricane named after me. Hurricane Mia. Not Tropical Storm Mia and certainly not Tropical Depression Mia.

Hurricane Mia. The powerful Hurricane Mia.

But back then I only knew about hurricanes from a West Texas perspective.

• Most hurricanes are very far away and don’t cause so much as a puff of wind in Abilene.

• The hurricanes that come closer and land on the Texas and Louisiana coasts sometimes spin out storms filled with rain that are very welcome in the Big Country.

• People on the news talk about hurricanes as awesome events that show the powers of nature . . . people on the coast board up their houses and fill sand bags and make videos of the storm. Television weather people travel to the storms and then stand outside to talk about them. Mostly they say, “Everyone should seek shelter and not get out in the storm.” Obviously, one of the powers of nature is to influence some people not to listen to sound advice.

But there is a much more sinister side to hurricanes.

Just yesterday, Hurricane Helene smacked into northwest Florida. Momma and Daddy have friends that live in that area. Gallons and gallons of rain fell and there were big floods. The wind blew 140 miles per hour. That’s almost as fast as I’m zooming in this video.

Hurricane Helene blew north and more friends of Momma and Daddy who live in Georgia and Tennessee had tornadoes and torrential rains.

People were hurt. Homes were damaged. Many boys and girls cried.

Just out of curiosity, I asked Daddy if there had ever been a Hurricane Mia. He drummed his thumbs against the screen of his phone for a minute. Then he told me that he hadn’t found one. But he did find a website called “Hypothetical Hurricanes” and it had a long story about a Hurricane Mia in the future — November 2025 to be specific.

I hope that future storm was named after another Mia somewhere, because it sounds awful. Lots of people died. Whole cities lost power. People hated Hurricane Mia.

A younger me thought that having my own branded hurricane would signal my celebrity status and power. Now I’m not so sure. I hope the pretend Hurricane Mia never happens.

Daddy says wisdom comes with age and I get older every day. I’m thinking it might be wise just to be known as a friendly, mild-mannered Husky from Abilene, Texas. Even if I’m never famous.

But I watch the news. And it seems to be mostly about people who want to be known for saying and doing bad things. It would be better if people wanted to be less like hurricanes and more like sunshine and rainbows and moonbeams from heaven.¹

1. Daddy says if you know that song, you should sing along.