Friday, April 16, 2010

Ash Friday

Seemingly pre-historic events have invaded our post-post-modern airspace. Ice chunks tumbled from a volcano beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FHAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier on Thursday, as hot gases melted the ice. The ash cloud that formed subsequently has grounded flights across Europe.

We are at the whim of the flow and flux of molten metals and sheets of rock. How strange it seems that in this advanced, technological age our high flying plans can be curtailed by something so basic and unpreventable as the lumbering movements of mother earth's belly.

How easy it is to forget that no matter how many life-enhancing super drugs or super computers we invent, our lives here are unstable at best. We may be the most advanced lifeforms on the planet, but the simple truth is that we're no match for that planet, when it flexes its muscles we crumble and bow down before its might.

Why ever we thought that we could become masters of the universe I cannot understand. Why we abused this planet for so long and celebrated our ability to do so, I cannot even begin to fathom. Human life on earth may eventually be brought to an end by the eruption of a super-volcano, or by a meteor that smashes into the surface of the earth, alternatively we may overheat our planet or starve to death due to man-made environmental degradation. It is humbling to know that there are forces more powerful than armies, nuclear bombs and withering looks. I think that it is also useful to be reminded from time to time that the planet is powerful, the planet will out live us by a long way, we're just passengers here and we should respect this position.




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