This week, after an earthquake shook parts of the world that don’t know what to do during them, it was one thing. Then after a hurricane slammed into that same part of the world, it was quite another. And even more, some forecasts project a hurricane potentially taking a silimar track to Irene… It has been a strange, odd, and particularly eerie week.
I’m not saying end times are upon us. I’m not quitting the day job and hopping in my car to proclaim armageddon .. But I can admit, I felt a lot closer to that this week than ever before.
I have never lived through an earthquake before. Sure, here in the Coal Region of Pennsylvania, I suppose I’m sheltered. Or thought I was. And hurricanes? We’ve had them… that one is an old one. But for in cities that never sleep, massive rains and winds can shake not only foundations of buildings but also the human psyche.
The only conclusion that one can derive from a week of natural disaster is this: The world, all over, is fragile. The ground isn’t certain. And the winds can blow.
That is a scary prospect, as well, isn’t it?
We are a society, a human race, that tries to get ahead of nature. We also have this notion that, since we made computers, we don’t have to worry about those old fashioned problems like disease and natural disasters. But we do.
I have often said, and still believe, that society as a whole is constantly on a hair trigger away from anarchy. Just one action, even if it’s small, can provoke insurrection. And in 2011, billions of dollars have been tallied in an expensive year for natural disasters.
The only stark and complete conclusion I can take from a shaky, windy week: We are at the mercy of this planet. We don’t run it, own it, or master it. We just inhabit it.
