Hypocrisy

I've been watching news coverage of the horrific events taking place in Japan. A monstrous earthquake with a magnitude of 8.9. Giant tsunamis sweeping in from the sea, crushing buildings and boats and roads and washing people and their dreams into oblivion. And now, serious concerns about the possible meltdown of at least one nuclear plant, following a severe explosion inside the plant.

We watch, helplessly, from this side of the globe, wondering what we can do, wishing we could do something. Perhaps we can do a bit. We can offer aid, we can send money and supplies and assistance in recovery and reclamation. But we can't undo, in years, what the forces of nature have done in an instant.

As I witness these horrible events captured on video, it occurs to me how remarkably fragile our lives are. We may be sturdy and we may have wills of steel that will ensure we will fight back and rebuild, but, ultimately, we are fragile beings who don't recognize our own fragility.

I won't say the infrastructure that has been destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami was not important. It was, no doubt, especially to the people who depended on it. But if we could retrieve the distant memories of our species, we would recall that we do not need all the things we have grown accustomed to having and have decided we "need" today. Our ancestors lived without electricity, without communications, without roads. Sure, it was a different and far more difficult life, but they lived it.

If only we could be content to have the real necessities like clean water, adequate shelter, and enough food. If all of us were content with those basics, and did not strive always for more, more, more, we would be better prepared...psychologically, at least, to cope with the inevitable eruptions of nature's fury.

Easy to say, of course, as I sit in my air-conditioned home, typing on my computer, drinking my coffee from freshly-ground beans. Are we all this hypocritical? Yes, I think so.