NATURE TRUMPS HOLLYWOOD

Seems most of us have slipped lethargically into the safer world of make-believe, subconsciously insulating ourselves from the scarier world of reality. We surround ourselves at the end of the day with the virtual realities of movies, television, good books and bad sitcoms. Not hurting anyone this way, just getting-away-from-it-all.

So OK, the human race has always sought needed diversions when it could. Only these days, the diversions available to us have grown epoch in both numbers and immediacy. One of the most popular being the horror and disaster movie. Hollywood has pretty much perfected an art that millions of us love.

No need to dwell on the over-worked psychological reasons we love them. It's escaping into horrors and disasters we know we can always leave safely behind. Except when something like Japan...!

There simply aren't enough Spielbergs and Camerons in tinsel town to get even close to the real-life horror and disaster of that ruptured island. Depression and war survivors here have seen some of this in their own lives, but few of today's younger generations. The immensity of the tragedy is hard to comprehend when you suddenly realize this time it's real. This time you just can't leave it behind in the movie theatre.

Apocalyptic doomsayers can be mostly ignored; they've been working the doom gig much too often. We might do better to at long last peek outside the bubbles of our safe cities, safe shores, and safe sense of exceptionalism. When we do, there's no escaping the inescapability of our vulnerability. Title, wealth, power, celebrity -- in the raging face of nature-unleashed, we're all equally frail, equally vulnerable.

Fear, though, is not the lesson here!

To discover our own bone-deep fears is simply the key. Now comes the chance to open the door. To fearlessly look into our fears. To consider our ever-so-sheltered vulnerability. To honestly take the measure of our little selves on this large planet. Right now about the only ones who have are some astronauts, philosophers, theologians, poets and clergy. I mean, their job descriptions include stepping out of bubbles!

Weeping at the sights in Japan may be our best opportunity to do the same. To see ourselves in a larger light. Whether that light be shed by the wisdom of the prophets or the Darwinians, there's something much larger than us going on here. Are you starting to notice too....?