Earthquakes and Emotions

Why do catastrophes happen? For the same reason anything else happens, in my view: to allow anyone experiencing them or observing them to react. (Incidentally, you can't observe something without influencing it: see any introductory quantum mechanics text for details.)

And how do people react? In as many ways as there are people to react. And then, of course, we react to their reactions, and others react to ours, and so colours the tapestry called Life. Can we get a hallelujah?

So we look at the earthquake and tsunami and feel an emotion. I like to define "emotion" as "energy in motion", because that's essentially what it is. When you merely feel something, the motion is slow and sluggish. When you express an emotion, the energy moves faster, with more noticeable effect. If your emotion, whatever it is, motivates you to do something, and thus you feel it in "thought, word, and deed": well, with that energy in motion you can work what look like miracles. If you feel like it, that is. With an entirely different set of emotions, your "miracles" may be of a...darker variety.

The full panoply of reactions, emotions and even miracles is on display in Japan and around the world, right now. So many things have awed me; so many more have disgusted me. Given the broad scope of "human nature", I can't say any of it surprises me. Here are some of MY reactions. Make of them what you will.

I'm amazed by the rescues. A seventy year old woman found alive in her home...except her home was washed out to sea with her in it. A four month old girl pulled uninjured from rubble that's too haphazard to even be identified with certainty. It's incredible. You hear these miraculous survival stories after every natural disaster, and they never fail to impress.

I am disgusted by the people who have no trouble expressing their apparently sincere belief that the earthquake was 'karmic payback' for Pearl Harbor. One wonders if they've read enough history to know what the Enola Gay was.

I'm heartened that there still exists a culture on this planet whose first imperative in the wake of calamity is to help each other. Numerous sources have remarked on an almost total absence of looting and disorder. It shames me to admit that my own culture isn't near as high-minded: even relatively minor disasters seem too often to bring out the worst in people.

I'm appalled that my Prime Minister would dare tie the Japanese earthquake to election prospects in Canada. According to the party in power, it's never a good time for an election, but explicitly mentioning Japan in this context is in stunningly bad taste.

I'm resigned to the fact that no matter how bad the crisis gets, there will be those who see nothing but dollar signs. The stock markets are tanking (why are they open at all?) Let's trade in misery today! How much money can be made off the misery of millions? Short sell! Hedge that bet! Shake, rattle, and roll, baby!

Related: the online scams. LESS THAN THREE HOURS after the earthquake, there were various and sundry ways up and running to defraud you of your money online. Sickening, that is.

The legitimate charitable response has been quite humbling. People are digging deep, belying the popular assertion that our economy is still fragile and might blow away in a stiff breeze. Maybe the bank commercial's right: we're richer than we think.

I'm proud that I'm a member of a species that can build a nuclear power plant to withstand a 9.0 quake.

I'm saddened by the number of folks who are ready to put the kibosh on nuclear energy because those plants are having trouble standing up to an historic tsunami that was beyond the imagination of their engineers. You don't see a worldwide moratorium on drilling after the Gulf oil spill, did you? Like it or not, take nuclear off the table and we'll be falling off the table ourselves before long.

And finally: I believe the Fukushima Fifty are genuine heroes, no matter how this story turns out.