Mother Earth re-arranges herself

" Not famine, not earthquakes, not cancer....but we are the great danger" (C.G. Jung, The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man)

I am a compassionate person, however, when I read the headline about the earthquake in Japan and the tsunami that followed the other day, I was not horrified, surprised or sad. Does that mean I am not compassionate? I also consider myself a participant in the folly of being a modern human. I expect to pay for my behavior as a participant in a culture that clearly has an addictive relationship to consumption of natural resources. I make miniscule efforts to reduce my carbon footprint, but not to the extent that it would cause me discomfort. I still drive a car; I still use paper cups for my espresso drinks; I use non eco-friendly two-ply toilet paper because it works better, and I take for granted that the sun will come out every day. If it hides behind clouds and makes me chilly, I will turn a little dial on my wall and use up some natural gas to get warm again.

I think I have more compassion for Mother Earth than I have for myself and my human brethren. As I saw the photos of Japan, replete with horrible scenes of wreckage and distraught citizens, and felt acutely humbled but not sad, I wondered if I would feel differently if the earthquake had occurred in Oakland, California where my daughter and other family members live. I remember the earthquake in 1986 that collapsed one freeway on top of the other in Oakland and which caused immense damage to homes and buildings in the San Francsico area in addition to the loss of human life. I wasn't particularly sad or horrified because, well...it IS San Francisco and earthquakes will occur. It is not a question of if, it is a question of when.

Then I thought about the oil spill that destroyed coastlines and entire eco-systems north of San Francisco back in 1971 when two oil tankers collided spilling 800,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the ocean. I still cry when I see photos of humans wading into the toxic surf to rescue birds who strained for air and whose wings were unable to open to lift them from the oily goo. This assault to our environment was entirely preventable, yet the prevailing attitude continues to be cavalier. There have been many more oils spills since, all followed by lame justifications and minimization of the violence and destruction. We seem to fail in making the behavior-consequence connection in our desire for everything in our world to be easier, faster and cheaper in the short run.

Humans choose to build cities on fault lines and in flood zones; they choose to take their chances and densely populate areas where Mother Nature tends to become restless from time to time. What continues to surprise me is how humans behave as though it is some sort of horrible accident when an earthquake destroys a city or a wildfire burns its way through an expensive suburb or the ocean, whose power exceeds everything and anything a human can create, decides to heave itself onto the land and level a coastline. Gregg Levoy, in his book "Callings" writes: "Toni Morrison once described how the Mississippi River, had been straightened out in places to make room for houses and livable acreage, and how occasionally the river will flood these places. 'Flood is the word thay use' she said,'but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering. Remembering where it used to be. All water has perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.'"

We are living organisms whose phsyical bodies mirror all systems in Nature, yet we seem to continue to think of ourselves as separate, as we build our homes and cities in flood plains or upon the earths fault lines and tornado zones. It seems we have a rather unrealistic expectation that the Earth somehow should accomodate our every whim and fancy despite how out of sync our actions are with nature's powerful rhythms and systems. Carl Jung wrote, "But our progressiveness, though it may result in a great many delighted wish-fulfillments, piles up an equally gigantic Promethean debt which has to be paid off from time to time in the form of hideous catastrophes" (C.G. Jung, CW 9.1, Par 276). For the most part, humans' orientation to nature has been one of conquest, not sympatico. We continue to insist Nature conform to our manufactured reality and behave as though we have been wronged when Nature acts as Nature does. The New York Times (Sunday, March 13th, 2011) had a front page article describing a tribal culture in the Phillipines which has managed to escape modernization and annihilation of its traditions and practices which are notable in their harmonious and reverent relationship with Nature. Such cultures have all but disappeared save for the Aboriginal cultures and others hidden deep in the forests out of the reach of land developers and other industries that have little regard or foresight in evaluating the costs and consequences of changing Nature's eco-systems.

Perhaps the massive earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, wild fires and other expressions of Nature are reminders of who is really in charge. And I am brought around again to the question of whether I would be devastated if I lost one of my children or a loved one as a result of nature's coughs, hiccups or out and out slaps across the face of humanity for its blatant arrogance. Yes, of course I would be devastated.I would be leveled and very humbled. But not surprised or indignant.