Sempiternal

There is nothing like standing conticent on a cold winter’s night. The clouds contrasting a smokey white against a navy blue. Icy air biting and stinging exposed skin. Then a certain numbness to the cold as you listen to the silence. Realizing how small you are in comparison to the world…or the universe. Shifting your body weight is like a crack of thunder in the middle of a hot summer night.

As human beings we walk the Earth confident of what we have conquered. Constantly claiming to have “climbed to the top of the food chain.” Weapons and foul language. Threats and abuse. Everything goes when we wage war on our fellow man.

However, you never see it coming until it’s too late. The hurricane that washed your house away. The tsunami that came down like a wall of cement on your vacation. The tornado that lifted your farm and threw it 3 miles down the road in more pieces than it took to build it. The earthquake that swallowed your car. Unfortunately, even our own life is involved in such forces of nature.

So, what are we really so confident about conquering? Sure we seem superior to many of the living things on this Earth, but our carelessness will only continue to grow and the forces of Nature will grow stronger. People go about with smug looks on their faces yet they don’t even stop to think about the many lives claimed by natural “disasters.” What do you say about that? How are you so much mightier than what you cannot truly predict?

Of course, I know we have our technology. Sure it shows us what is going on…to an extent. Things change faster than any computer can predict. A raging storm prediction quickly dissipates as it passes over a certain city. A tropical storm can change course and turn deadly within seconds.

Shouldn’t nature be the one gloating? As far as I’m concerned, that still has a tight hold on us.

Too bad more people don’t respect nature for it’s beauty.

“Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation… tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation.” ~Jean Arp