-The Bhagavad Gita and Robert Oppenheimer
In the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan that damaged three of their nuclear power stations I find myself waking up each morning wondering if country is still there. According to this graphic at the USA TODAY website Japan has 17 nuclear power stations spread throughout the county. Yes, 17 chances of a nuclear disaster in a earthquake prone country. This morning I awoke to news that the roof had blown off the building holding the number 3 reactor at the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant. There are 6 reactors at Fukushima 1 but the good news is that only 3 of those 6 are operating as the others were shut down for repairs before the earthquake hit.
I am surprised by my reaction to both the human toll of the earthquake and the news that Japan could be heading for a huge nuclear disaster. When I first heard, in the aftermath of the quake, that one of Japan's nuclear reactors could not be cooled down visions of Chernobyl danced in my head. Now, I feel pretty much indifferent about the whole thing. The Japanese government is downplaying the dangers of what has happened in their country by pretty much taking a World Nuclear Association stance while television news is hyping the "it could happen here" angle.
Maybe my lack of empathy is because I have become so hardened to disaster that I am not able to invest any more emotional energy into them. Maybe I have just reached the age where I understand that everything old is new again; earthquakes happen, tsunamis happen, nuclear incidents happen, and people die. The truth is that life can be tough and the world a dangerous place. In the end there is nothing we can do about this but accept it, take a deep breath, and keep on keeping on.
4 comments:
<span>I believe we MUST keep seeing Japan as healed and not keep seeing the devastation as the only reality. Seeing it healed serves more healing...yes?
Great miraculous healers never identified with the disease ONLY the life, the truth, the wholeness. That's what gave them the power of healing. Not agreeing with a material world that keeps identifying with fear and lack, but holding the healing as the truth, seeing the spiritual power as having dominion over material.
What a beautiful ripple to start and encourage, lifting up the spiritual healing to start.
I just love that way of thinking. WHAT am I choosing to identify with?
News channels don't report on the totality of life, there are more than one viewpoints... and holding just the material one... so limited, so full of lack and small thinking...
My dear friend Juli always says to me,"Go bigger Tara, take this higher."
I always find so much peace in that.</span>
I like this, thanks.
I tend to agree with you. I'm getting old and jaded and nothing seems to surprise me anymore,
I'm glad someone else finds it ironic that it's Japan which has the nuclear emergency. I was interested in the fact that they COULD have had better cooling but the budget couldn't handle it. If they (in Japan) do this, how much less reliable are the safeguards on our own reactors? Don't answer that....
Karmic law (as I inadequately understand it) would explain disasters as lots of people in the same place at the same time working out the same karma. It seems a bit glib to describe the deaths of so many people and displacement of so many more. But it's the only way I can make sense of it.
I try not to watch network/cable news when disasters strike. Their running the same video over and over seems to at the same time sensationalize the event, and trivialize it as just another in a long list of sound bytes (bites). I think it's desensitizing to watch it over and over again. And, as Tara says, it just keeps the situation static, instead of allowing the wiggle room necessary for healing/rebuilding to take place.
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