Rain, Contemplation, and Social Responsibility: Merton’s Challenge to Us

Despite the torrential rains that devastated Bermuda and deluged the coasts of Florida and the Carolinas last year, and despite the ongoing flooding in the South and Midwest, and despite the controversy over climate change as contributing to these natural disasters, water, in the form of rain, can be seen as a festival to be celebrated. In his widely anthologized essay, “Rain and the Rhinoceros,” Thomas Merton offers us a meditation on rain as a metaphor for understanding the importance of solitude and contemplation of the rhythms of Nature.