Tsunamis, Earthquakes, and Nuclear Power

Video of tsunami hitting Japanese coastal towns

Some thoughts on what's happening in Japan after watching this video...
I cannot begin to imagine what it must have been like to hear and see this wave approaching and not be able to do anything to escape it. The sea's power is simply overwhelming physically and mentally. Even watching this footage, it's incomprehensible. It makes me feel, selfishly, relieved to know such waves are extremely unlikely on the East Coast. (Most of Marion would be inundated and destroyed in minutes, of course, to give it a local perspective.) 

But those poor, poor, frightened people…moments of terror and then, nothing. It is, again, incomprehensible -- and terrifying just to think about. For those who survived, shock and grief.  How on earth Japan is going to recover from this, and the nuclear problem, is hard to imagine, but they will in time and with help, at least economically. But is that what's so important? Emotionally and mentally is another matter. Life is dramatically altered for thousands of people now and for generations and lifetimes to come.

Though obviously God had nothing to do with this event, just watching this small portion of it, one can easily understand how earlier peoples with no knowledge of geology would see the hand of God in it -- and be terrified. For us, though, who supposedly know better, how do we approach this spiritually? How do we bring meaning to it? What are the moral and ethical issues this event raises? 

On the other hand, I'm sure someone will see the hand of God in it, so let me anticipate their cretinous reactions:

God did it as punishment for…choose one:

A.  Pearl Harbor

B.  The Martyrs of Japan

C.  Being an unChristian nation

D. Toyota and Honda outselling Ford and Chevy

E.  Buying Rockefeller Center

F. The Bataan Death March & POW treatment

G. The Gay liberation movement in Japan

H. Simply being Japanese

I. Whatever wacko reasons Glenn Beck, Pat Robertson, et al. can come up with

It occurs to me, looking at a photo of our Earth from space, that from that perspective, the earthquake and resulting tsunami  weren't much of an event actually.  The wave hit only a very small portion of Japan's coastline, and only a tiny percentage of all our coastlines. It's effect was localized to that part of Japan, at least physically. It was just Gaia, mother Earth, doing her thing. It is only because we are here on this planet that the tsunami takes on significance.  I know, I know…If a tree falls in the woods…

The nuclear problem is another issue.  If we weren't here, it wouldn't have happened. We did it. Good old American know-how.  Companies our retirement plans invest in built those reactors. We paid for them and made money from them. I know Derek will disagree with me, but what's happened in Japan is exactly why we need to come up with alternative sources of clean and safe energy -- and close all nuclear plants ASAP.  That's the intelligent ans reasonable thing to do, but will we?  Probably not. We never seem to learn.  The almighty dollar always comes first in our capitalistic corporatocracy.  Like Mother Nature, human nature seems to stay the same…until the 100th monkey washes her food.  So there is hope for us perhaps…