On a morning of heavy rain and distant thunder, my dog Anne followed me around the house in fear. Watching her tremble at sounds she could not understand made me think about the fears human beings also face—and about the most frightening source of all.
This morning, in addition to heavy rain, I could hear the sound of thunder from time to time in the distance.
Our flat-coated retriever, Anne, is not good with loud noises.
Ever since she noticed the thunder, she has been restless, following closely behind me wherever I go.
As soon as I realized there was thunder, I hurriedly closed the windows and even the lace curtains. But a dog, with hearing far sharper than any human’s, was never going to miss the sound of thunder, however distant it might be.
She followed me around, making frightened little sounds.
Today was the collection day for cans, bottles, and plastics. In weather like this, I could hardly let my wife take Anne with her to the garbage station, holding an umbrella and carrying a large bag. So I went instead. Anne followed me all the way to the front door, and only turned back when she saw the heavy rain outside.
The rain was so hard that even sorting the cans and bottles felt unpleasant, but I somehow managed to finish and came back home safely. My wife, who had been making my lunch while I was gone, told me that Anne had been whining the whole time I was away.
And then Anne began following me around again.
Last night, there was a fireworks display in Zushi, and my wife told me Anne had a terrible time throughout it.
I remembered that last year, when we had gone out to see fireflies, the sound of fireworks reached us from somewhere nearby, and Anne became terribly frightened then as well.
From a dog’s point of view, of course it must be frightening when a loud, incomprehensible sound comes falling from the sky.
Even for human beings, thunder has long been counted among frightening things. In Japan, there is an old saying: “earthquakes, thunder, fire, and fathers.”
Lightning can cause power outages. If it strikes you, it can kill you.
We know that thunder is the sound produced by a discharge of electrical energy. More than anything, we know that it will pass. So we endure it for a while and wait it out.
But a dog cannot understand any of that.
During that time, Anne must be fighting a fear far greater than ours.
Poor thing.
Yet frightening, unknowable things are not limited to dogs. Human beings have many of them too.
Air raids in war. Robberies committed by anonymous, fluid criminal groups.
Both can threaten one’s life, and in the sense that they may be impossible to avoid, they may resemble thunder for a dog.
But earthquakes and thunder are natural phenomena. There is little we can do against them.
War and crime, on the other hand, are caused by human beings themselves.
When I think of it that way, I cannot help feeling that human beings may be the most unknowable, and the most frightening, existence of all.
Perhaps the most frightening unknown is not nature, but humanity itself.
Vocabulary for Learners
- distant thunder：遠くで鳴る雷
- restless：落ち着かない、そわそわした
- whining：クンクン鳴くこと
- incomprehensible：理解できない、得体の知れない
- wait it out：過ぎ去るまでじっと待つ
- air raid：空襲
- anonymous criminal groups：匿名性の高い犯罪グループ
- unknowable：知り尽くせない、正体のわからない
- humanity itself：人間そのもの、人間性そのもの
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