Tsunami Related Thoughts

California coast. How come they got all the pretty shit?

One note about the Tsunami, I have a distributor in Singapore I was worried about. He is fine, Singapore was shielded by Sumatra from the waves and only barely felt the earthquake. Another guy in my industry was on Sri Lanka with his wife (she is Sri Lankan). No word on him yet.

The Tsunami would have, in my atheist days, been cited as proof that there either was no god or that god was cruel. Today, I am sure that a Tsunami means neither; but it is a valid question to ask where was god? why did this have to happen? For me, the best answers I have heard to that question can be found in the philosophy of Rabbi Harold Kushner's works, particularly his book When Bad Things Happen To Good People. I see that you can get a used copy on Amazon for about fifty cents! Believe me, this is a book worth two and half bucks (with shipping). Or you can read an interview with Rabbi Kushner right here. It amazes me that as a Rabbi, the material he has to work with is all Old Testament. How he finds a loving God in that I don't know, but he does. And if there is a loving God hidden in the Old Testament, then there must be a loving God (however you concieve of Her) everywhere!

Do I believe my faith would save me from a Tsunami? No, nor would it save me from a bullet, a car wreck or anything else. All my faith does is give me the tools to cope with what does happen. That is enough, I am grateful for it. My faith, I believe, has saved me from myself several times.

I am also not sure that we don't have a misplaced sense of the importance of our lives here. Lives can be ended so easily, so casually, that I wonder if this life is simply not the priority of the Divine. If this life is not the priority, the implication is that there is another existence, another life if you will, that is the priority. As Gandalf says in Lord of the Rings, that is a comforting thought.

Doesn't mean I'm going to go rushing into the next life. There are a few things I'd still like to do in this life. But my time will come when it comes and it won't seek my permission first, so I had best be as ready as I can be.

Goddess, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. Thank You, Lady. Blessed Be.