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Tsunami Tsusan

December 28, 2004

What remains when everything is lost?

~ The future

Who could possibly offer up an explanation for what happened in the Indian Ocean on Sunday? So many innocent people – swallowed. How does something like that fit into the category we call "God"?

I'm wondering.

I watched a show on the History Channel the other night that was about all things Armageddon. I was shocked to hear the percentage of Americans who believe these are the "end times". As a matter of fact, I found it so shocking, I immediately put the figure out of mind... I couldn't fathom it.

The image of a hateful God makes absolutely no sense to me. Of course, it made sense milleniums ago... back then, there was no other rational explanation. When the earth coughed and spewed and killed a bunch of people it had to be God's fault... which ultimately meant it was man's fault. If you follow the bread crumbs for very long, you'll enter the Garden of Eden, where all of this is ultimately Eve's fault. Someone HAS to be blamed. The undefinable mysteries must be defined.

The answer is, there is no answer. Notice – please notice –I didn't say there isn't a God, but for whatever reason, she chooses not to provide us with a lot of answers.

The longer I trip over things on this planet the more I come to realize I really know nothing at all. I'm clueless. I'm mystified. I'm filled with horror. I am filled with awe. We are so very small – so very fragile. We think we have all the answers and have the world by the tail, and then the viper strikes and goes for the jugular. The viper isn't the devil... the viper is the illusion that we know it all.

Life is a scary, wonderful, awesome mystery. This is one of the precious few things I need to know.

Posted by susan at December 28, 2004 6:50 PM

Comments

I think you have it right. At first I tried to think in terms of how many 9/11 equivalents. At 3,000 deaths in lower Manhattan, I calculate that so far one tsunami equals over forty 9/11s. And without the malevolent intent--what should we make of that?

In all these circumstances, I tend to want to do something to fix it...and I can't. Beyond the obvious sending monetary contributions, maybe I shouldn't do much until I finish processing the shock and grief.

If this is a message from God, surely it has something to do with how we allocate the wealth in our little garden home?

Posted by: Karen at December 31, 2004 9:37 AM