Quickly, now. Just because the word trump is in my title does not mean this is a column regarding a man. I’m speaking of trump as a word. I know that would disappoint a certain presidential contender, but I wasn’t thinking of him as I thought of the word.

The word trump, aside from the man, is most used in the playing of card games. I have never played bridge or many other card games. I play canasta every now and then with my family, but that is about the extent of my card playing.

If the truth be known, I’m a fan of Old Maid if I can find someone who is young enough for me to fool. You know, by sticking the “old maid” card up higher than the others, enticing them to choose it! I would say that my card opponent, preferably, would not be above the age of five.

The trump card, though, is a superior card; the one that holds victory over all the other cards. In fact, if you add a couple of letters to the word trump, like an “i” after the “r” and stick an “h” on the end, you have the word triumph, which is a derivative of the word.

My point is that the word trump, most often associated with playing cards, is a word that means something that is laid down, as in a card game, to claim victory or superiority.

This week, we have seen what may be the greatest trump card played, not in a card game, but in the lives of millions of people. This card, often discounted as though we can beat it with our human maneuvers, wins every time.

The trump card that we dismiss or forget at our own peril? Mother Nature!

Farmers have irrigation that can overcome the lack of rain in many cases. Yet, as we have seen for almost two weeks, you can’t pick peanuts or cotton without Mother Nature’s sunshine. Sometimes we have to just sit and wait for Mother Nature.

The rain in South Carolina has been almost unbelievable, except for the fact that we have seen it with our own eyes!

Highways, built by the world’s greatest engineers, paid for by millions and billions of dollars ought to be impervious and foolproof. Right? All Mother Nature has to do is “her thing” and they crumble as if they were actually Legos.

The East or West Coast, entire states like Florida and Louisiana, build upon the sand their exotic resorts to attract those who would vacation. Mother Nature hiccups a little hurricane and the fancy resorts, claiming to be built to withstand the ultimate matriarch’s fury, has to simply take whatever she wants to send. As was said in the memorable commercial, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”

Whether it was 2,000 years ago in Italy (Pompeii) or a short 35 years ago (Washington State’s Mt. St. Helens), cities and national parks are at the mercy of nature’s Grande dame blowing her stack.

Trillions of dollars in resources and millions of lives live on the West Coast of the United States knowing that on any day the San Andreas Fault might simply do what it is going to do and there is nothing they can do about it.

We may huff and puff and raise ourselves up in our minds, but we might as well not. There is a trump card just waiting to be played. That’s a good reason for prayer and humility.