It seems the gods are angry at the moment.
Not that I believe in any of that stuff. I stopped believing when, in my teens, someone very close to me died, tragically. Or rather was killed in an accident caused by the drunken irresponsibility of another. It made no sense to me . Forty years later, it still doesn’t. That, and the injustices I’ve seen around the world have left me jaded at the thought of a higher power that is “looking after” us. If that is the case, then I think he/she/it is doing a pretty poor job of it for most of the population of this planet, irrespective of their individual beliefs.
A few years ago, I was standing in an ornamental garden in the centre of Tokyo. I was attending a banquet dinner, where the most exquisite of food had been served. And afterwards we wandered in the gardens while musician serenaded us with the discordant strains of traditional music.
It wasn’t the first tremor I had experienced. But it was the first time I was standing on the ground when it happened. So there was no rattling of windows, no shaking. What felt like a giant creature, a 100 foot sandworm was writhing in the earth underneath my feet. It rolled and writhed and surged and then was gone. I felt it rise up through my feet and legs and vibrate my entire body. I felt it in every molecule of my body and it terrifed me. I felt its might and its ire.
I looked around at the “locals”, but they hadn’t reacted. After all, the Japanese experience around 1500 of these a year. There were earth-quake detecting instruments in the corner of every room, in every public building I entered. Even more disturbing were the illustrations on the back of the door of the hotel, showing what to do during an earthquake evacuation procedure. The idea of placing a pillow over my head to protect me from several floors of concrete landing on my head, was totally ludicrous...
I looked across at the banquet hall and a couple of Japanese people were holding onto the glass window with both hands. I thought it odd.
I caught up with my girlfriend... “Did you feel that?” I said. “Feel what.” She replied. “Oh, it was just an earth tremor.” I said, trying to down-play my experience. I didn’t want to push the conversation, she had already told me that she’d be on the first plane home if an earthquake hit. I could not believe she hadn’t felt it. It was only one of several tremors we would feel in our two weeks in Japan.
The next morning I stood on the observation deck of one of Tokyo’s highest buildings. The view was almost invisible. I was up in the clouds and the mist swirled and clung to the windows obscuring my view of most of Tokyo. What if an earthquake hit now, I thought. Would I ride this building to the ground? What if the lifts failed to work, or just failed. I thought of the people who jumped off the World Trade Centre and I shuddered and I decided not to think about it anymore.