I had planned to write on Saturday, but when I woke up to the news of the extraordinarily devastating tornados that flattened entire towns in the American midwest, I knew I had to hold off. Over the weekend, bird's eye/satellite/drone views of the destruction have been truly astonishing, overwhelming. This is not a case of people in one small neighborhood losing homes and having to temporarily camp out with friends a few miles away. This is entire towns and parts of states being completely wiped off the map. Six weeks ago (Natural Disasters, October 27), I wrote about the word "disaster" in this context, and I wouldn't change a word. However, for the people who have lost absolutely everything -- homes, important papers, family memorabilia, furnishings, appliances, jobs, cars, and in some cases, lives -- this word is the only one that begins to apply. It may take years for people and communities to recover their equilibrium, if they ever do. And judging from the warm December temperatures across the country, there may be many more unseasonal tornados touching down before the end of the year. There is a paradox inherent in calls to rebuild, clean up the mess and return to normal. It is ever-more-universally agreed that this very "normal" is actively causing more potent storms. When towns and cities are clean, and running relatively smoothly, it's hard to see the human-created dangers under the surface. Things look nice, prosperous, permanent. A tornado, hurricane, or fire pulls away the veil. Mile after mile of plastic waste, chemicals, oil, twisted metal, broken pavement and electrical wire...they are all exposed, out of context. No longer useful, much of this waste is dangerous and toxic, to us and to earth.
Taking these kinds of weather events into perspective as well as the newly-worsening COVID situation, I think we are being asked to pause in 2022. Take a deep breath, and try, if possible, to rise above our limited human perspective and see if we can hear what Earth/Gaia/Divine Love is trying to tell us. I don't think it matters how you see the creative force underpinning life -- male, female, or "just" love. That force is awesomely powerful. Numerologically, 2022 is a 6. I'm not a student of numbers (as anyone who knows me will tell you!) but six relates to healing, wholeness, peace, and other good things. Can we stop and listen to the guidance inherent in these events? Just long enough to consider what is working and what is not working as we interact with this precious earth home. Can these events teach us how to really heal, and bring peace, harmony, and stability?
A last comment, an almost complete non sequitur. Time Magazine's Person of the Year was just announced. Back when I worked in the magazine's Letters Department (most of the 1980's), I was often tasked with responding to complaints about what was then called the "Man of the Year" issue. And almost every year, we received complaints about that title. Personally, I completely agreed so I had to suppress my own opinion and tweak a form letter that the department had used for many years. The magazine did not change over to "Person of the Year" until 1999, nine years after I left the company. It is hard for me to feel enthusiasm about this year's choice because it seems to reflect the traditional 19th and 20th century male perspective on what constitutes newsworthiness, and worth in general. I guess it's reasonably easy to change the superficialities, much harder to shift entrenched belief systems. Until, perhaps, the tornados come.
