Calamities

I wonder if the proportion of calamities we are presently experiencing is the same as it might have been when men carried swords for self defense, and highway robbers stalked carriages. When natural catastrophes like wild fires, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes occurred, only people in their vicinity were aware.

Just like today, ethnic groups migrated and warred over territory, creating havoc as man made religions clashed. The human condition, theoretically, has improved, but the same degree of power and privilege still exists, causing an unbalance of 'have and have nots' around the globe.

Of course advances in science, medicine and labor saving devices have eased the daily struggle to survive, but global television news coverage of barbaric atrocities of persons searching for better living conditions, destruction of huge areas of habitat due to extreme weather conditions, murder and mayhem for political dominance is such a constant litany of world wide calamities, it suffocates and overwhelms. The threat of nuclear catastrophe is always with us.

In the grand scheme of things, events come and go and history records them. I guess its human nature to adapt and survive. We do find ways to overcome the stresses and actually find ways to pursue happiness. Like my grandmother used to say, “a hundred years from now it won't make any difference”.



South Dakota Tornado
Photograph by Carsten Peter