TWILIGHT OF THE MATADORS

You'd think bullfighting in Catalonia and tsunami's in the Pacific had nothing in common. But you'd be wrong...!

Throughout the history of Catalonian bullfighting, the matador has been the symbol of insistent humanity confronting the forces of raw nature. In Catalonia, the matador almost always wins. But half way round the world, nature once again wins. The human toll from the latest earthquakes and tsunami's write large on our hearts the cold reality that man is actually very small.

While great leaders of great powers stride the globe with their great fame and finery, in their hearts they have to know there are forces beyond their reach. And yet, like today's thinning number of matadors, the best of these leaders face off with those forces they are dedicated to subdue. As with the Catalonian Fusta Sword, they seek to bring them down one by one.

Be it God or evolution, our species understands no other way. A good thing, too, for to stand in place in life's arena is to die.

However, human bravado eventually has to come to terms with the meaning of the diminishing crowds in Catalonia and the swelling body counts in the Far East. Is raw nature inexorably catching up with and passing by our best intentions...? If the environmentalists and historians are right and we are destroying both our planet and our progress, is this the twilight of our civilization as well as our matadors...?

The Catalonian Parliament is debating whether to close off the bull rings forever. However, in the case of nature's disasters, there is no way of closing them off even temporarily. Still, to watch the silent fervor of the relief workers out there, is to be once more reminded our species will not -- cannot-- yield without a fight. Watching these men and women enter collapsing buildings and nursing collapsing lives is to sense what the crowds must sense when they cheer the plunge of the sword. It is to feel: In the end, we shall overcome!

Now the real challenge for humankind is learning how to overcome without adding any more body counts....!