Lately this blog has become The Earthquake Blog. Obviously it’s something I find fascinating, anyway, and of course it’s on everyone’s mind with the cascade of huge temblors beginning in New Zealand and most recently in Japan. The costs have been almost unimaginable. For those of us whose glimpses at the scope of tragedy is restricted to what can be contained by the camera lens, we can’t truly grasp what it must be like for endless miles of towns and villages to have been removed from the surface of the earth. If we in the US sit slack-jawed at the tiny snippets we see, how much more devastating must it be for those whose entire world has literally been washed away?
I won’t demean those catastrophes with something trite tonight, nor espouse more dire predictions that the chain of quakes will pick up on the western coast of Canada and the US. What will be, will be.
There are reasons I believe that as terrifying as the megaquakes are, they’re a symptom of a greater change in progress, a polar shift. It’s beyond humanity to do more than prepare as well as possible and pray that the predictions are wrong – if in nothing more than scope. There isn’t a question that there WILL be a massive quake along the western seaboard; it’s an established fact, a distinct pattern going back thousands of years. There’s no question of whether a polar shift will occur. That, too, is a historically documented fact, albeit on a significantly longer timeline. The only real questions are when and, in the case of the polar shift, how quickly will it occur. We know that magnetic north has been moving for some time now. It used to be in the vicinity of the planet’s rotational pole; it’s now located somewhere in Siberia and is still moving.
There’s a theory that polar shifts can occur in a very different and literally earth-bending context; one where the planet’s entire outer shell effectively glides over the liquid magma that makes up the mantle and the rotational pole moves – so the new North Pole might move to Poland – or Arizona. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure that it won’t be smooth as silk if and when that happens. If it’s a process that occurs over a thousand years, that’s still a thousand years +/- during which we’ll all be living a Jerry Lee Lewis song, and not in a good way. If it happens like some suspect, occurring over months or weeks or, God forbid, days, all bets are off as to whether humanity will survive to argue the point.
Ultimately, for all our technological achievements, the human race remains at the mercy of our planet’s whims.
I know, I know. I swore I wouldn’t go there. I lied. But only a little, because that’s it for the earthquake stuff.
G and I went out for dinner last night. It wasn’t exactly haute cuisine; in fact, it was a hole-in-the-wall Chinese place that aspires to be as fancy as your average greasy spoon. But the food’s decent and plentiful, the prices are right, and it’s close to home. We naturally got fortune cookies with the meal and mine was three words: Believe In Miracles.
I smiled because I absolutely believe in miracles. I’ve seen misery in my life, lived through some horrendous experiences that should by rights have killed me. I have also seen large and small miracles – not the least of which is that I am alive now to tell about them! There have been remarkable, breathtaking moments where time stood still at the vision of a huge crane amid the ducks, a majestic silhouette against the sunrise; God and the Universe providing for needs (and often wants, too) in ways mysterious and unforeseen; and the certainty that yes, even tragedies serve a purpose.
When my computer died, I was given $300 to buy a computer. It was literally a random event, by all logic. But the timing was too coincidental to have been truly random. This afternoon G and I took our monthly trek to Staples, where we carried a $20 credit voucher. (We recycle ink cartridges, which garner us $2 apiece.) We’d planned to pick up some canned air for ongoing ‘puter maintenance; as it worked out, the canned air was on sale AND so was a lamp we both absolutely adored. Between lamp and canned air we’d normally have been looking at close to $60. Between the voucher and the sales prices we walked out having spent less than $9 actual cash out of pocket. It isn’t an exact match to the lamp we had, but it’s the same finish and in a complementary style. Maybe that’s not a miracle to some people; it absolutely is to me.
When we needed a printer we walked in also with vouchers and walked out with a $200+ printer for about $25 out of pocket, including tax. (If that.) There are new tires on the car and we have food in the house. The bills are paid.
We are blessed, and I would have to be an idiot to chalk it up to coincidence.
No, I don’t have a newer car and I’d still like that to happen. But it will. Soon. I know God and the Universe will provide. I believe in miracles.