The Avalanche Randy was a forest ranger. Because of his job, he was secluded in a cabin in the wilderness. One day, the radio reported, “Convection in the atmosphere is causing a lot of clouds to form. A serious storm . . . ” Suddenly, the radio went silent. The signal was lost. He went outside and looked at the overcast sky. Anybody else would have taken the dark sky as an omen of a very bad storm, but not Randy. His upbringing had taught him consistency. He had done this job for years, and nothing could stop him. Besides, he thought nothing could hurt him. Today, he had a very important task to do. The snow was starting to pile up high on the mountain. If too much accumulated, it could cause an avalanche. But Randy had an apparatus to get rid of the snow. It used dynamite to shake the snow and make the top layer of snow come down. As the snow started falling, he thought about returning to the office until the storm stopped, but he decided not to. Suddenly, he heard a loud noise behind him. It was an avalanche! He started to run, but within seconds, he was knocked sideways and buried by the snow and rubble from an old cabin that had been destroyed. An aerial rescue team= came quickly. Randy was just a speck amongst the great pile of snow, but the team found him thanks to his brightly colored jacket. They quickly took him to a hospital. After a few hours, Randy woke up in the hospital. He looked at the sober faces of the doctors and saw his wife sobbing. “What’s wrong?” he asked. He didn’t remember what had happened. “You were almost killed!” his wife said. “You broke several ribs. But the rest of you is still reasonably intact. You are really lucky to be alive,” the doctor said. After five days, Randy was discharged from the hospital. The experience had taught him a poignant lesson: he was a mortal, and nature was much more powerful than him.