The Rain in London

There’s a big difference between the rain in England and the rain in Texas.

The rain in Texas is like God coming down here after He just said not to make Him do it. It’s weighty and fierce, pelting you like ancient Greek capital punishment. (Meteorologists say that there’s more electrical energy in the Texas climate, so we also get some truly epic lightning.)

In England, the rain doesn’t fall; it condenses like an eternal morning dew. London rain is so fine and weightless, you almost forget that it’s there. But it is, the water slowly working its way into everyone and everything, wearing down your happiness and resolve droplet by droplet.

The rain is an integral part of London’s character and mood, acting as the counterpart to the sun in Los Angeles. Walking past Trafalgar Square, across rain-slicked streets, pedestrians wielding black umbrellas - there is no mistaking where you are.

However, I had the pleasure of experiencing a few sunny, twenty-degrees-Celsius days in London, and the city absolutely shines under such conditions. Hyde Park under the sun, suffused with green; Londoners lounging in deck chairs; swans with heads tucked in their feathers; the bronze gleam of the Peter Pan statue - the place becomes a storybook like no other.

But sunny and warm is clearly not the default mode of this place. The sun is always about to take its leave in London, and everyone knows it.