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Tasmanian Anglican

February 2005

 

Editor's Angle - A real catastrophe

by Sheelagh Wegman

 

 

Four weeks after the terrifying tsunami swept away tens of thousands of people I still find it difficult to comprehend the enormous scale of this disaster. Photos and satellite images of shifted islands and re-drawn coastlines reveal only glimpes of the vastness of the destruction and loss of life.

We are not accustomed to 'real' catastrophes - they happen in the movies; we can watch in safety, knowing that Bruce or Kevin or Jackie will overcome the powers of nature and save all the 'good' people. But the real thing stuns and bewilders us. Imagine witnessing Vesuvius or Krakatoa, or the meteorites that struck Earth thousands of years ago.

It will be a long, long time before all lost people are accounted for - if at all. Yet tales of amazing survival continue to emerge, like that of the man found alone on a re-shaped island, living on nothing but coconuts for four weeks.

Among the anecdotes are many about the animals. The 'dumb creatures' are so keenly sensitive to the movements of the land and sea, and seem to know instinctively when danger is coming. People in one tourist town noted that all the hundreds of monkeys usually swarming over the place had disappeared into the hillside forests. A group of elephants suddenly fled to the hills, taking with them their startled riders, thus saving their lives.

Animals are tuned in. They sense danger. They know where to seek safety.

Observe dogs and horses when a thunderstorm is imminent, or see how the cockatoos and currawongs move to lower areas when the wind gets up. Mind you, being alert with heightened senses is one thing; having somewhere safe to go to is quite another, and despite their instincts many animals did perish along with almost a quarter of a million people.

Yet maybe we humans can learn something here for our inner wellbeing. Maybe we need to learn to be alert for life's spiritual earthquakes and tsunamis and exercise our God-given sense to seek 'safe ground'.

I like the bumper sticker from some years ago. It said: 'Be a lert. We need more lerts.' I reckon God's kingdom needs more lerts too.