There Will Come Soft Rains

"Today is August 5, 2026, today is August 5, 2026, today is..."

This is the final line of “There Will Come Soft Rains”, a short story by Ray Bradbury written in 1950 under the dark pall of *mutually assured destruction*, a concept that created a chilling impasse between the US and the Soviet Union known as “The Cold War”.  It came down to: if you nuke us, we will nuke you, so don’t nuke us.  

The fear of a nuclear holocaust was felt acutely even up through the 70’s and early 80’s which encompassed my formative years.  It was a popular subject in books, movies, and TV.  I was reading things like On the Beach, Swan Song, and Damnation Alley.  Years later I picked up A Canticle for Leibowitz and The Postman.  I specifically remember watching a TV mini-series called “The Day After” with trepidation.  According to the internet it was watched by 100 million Americans on ABC in 1983.  I was 14 years old and perhaps all of this explains my melancholy nature, at least in part.  

In this short story a nuclear war has finally happened and a fully automated house remains intact amongst the death and destruction surrounding it.  People are dead and gone but their routines live on briefly through this house.  The link below is the story in its entirety.  And yes, today is August 5, 2026.

There Will Come Soft Rains