In a car,…on the way to our campsite,…rapidly descending into an awesome river canyon,…flanked on one side by massive walls of stone,…on the other side vistas of mountains and crags of mountains,…every serpentine curve of the road bringing a new viewpoint,…vegetation changing as the elevation continues to drop,…and always, the massive stones and the roots of the mountains around us: Our family was taking a camp holiday.

Inside the car, provoked by safety warnings posted on the camp website, we were discussing what to do in a lightning storm.

“You’re supposed to crouch down, open your mouth and make sure you have no metal on – none!” said my 14-year-old. “But I’m not sure why you’re supposed to open your mouth,” she added.

“That’s so the percussive force of the thunder won’t pop your eardrums,” someone offered.

We were all digesting that information, picturing what we would do in a violent storm. Some of us were opening and closing our mouths, evaluating the effect on our eardrums. Then my analytically-minded 12-year-old inquired, “”What about zippers on pants?”

“What?!”

“Zippers on pants are made of metal,” she said. “Are we supposed to take our pants off?”

This question logically followed our previous conversation, and (I think) it was sincerely asked, but the mental images it provoked! – Crouching down, with mouth open, and separated from our pants! We laughed, tried to process the correct choice in such a predicament and came to the conclusion that it would be better to keep your pants on. Just as we solved that conundrum, both my girls realized with hilarious shrieks that they both have a complete mouthful of braces! (Translation: LOTS of metal!) – too much metal to expose with an open mouth in a thunderstorm. And so we revised our what-to-do-if-caught-in-a-thunderstorm list: 1) Crouch down and, 2) CLOSE YOUR MOUTH!