Yesterday Japan was hit by a magnitude 8.9 quake that sent tsunami waves over the island country and left a trail of devastation. The word "trail" is an understatement. What the footage from CNN showed is more like an expressway. Afterwards, a Level 2 tsunami warning was given to multiple provinces most likely to be hit by a sudden rush of waves from Japan.
Mixed reactions to the event included:
I.Fear and Uncertainty (2012 is just around the corner)
A professor whose posts in social networking sites I usually follow mainly because of their sheer entertainment value quoted: "I am still at awe with the tsunami in Japan. My mom warned me about 2012 and the lawyer in me always would find it baseless. Now, I am having second thoughts..." Another posted a quote by professor Dumbledore, "these are dark times, Harry." While a friend of mine commented: "2012 na!! wooooo!! mangungumpisal na ko bukas!!"
What is inducing this hysteria of the End of Times? (as I type this entry, I am currently chatting with a highschool friend based in Italy talking about SLR cameras, contracts, and boyfriends/douchebags). The Mayan calendar had its share in the spotlight. Thanks to the CGI-studded overkill that is a movie titled 2012, and other so-called end of times themed media content, people are seriously getting into the Armageddon thing. Bandwagon effect.
Which reminds me to read once more a book. A really good one. And I don't mean the Bible because if its the end times we are talking about the Good Book's version paints a rather bleak picture for the average reader. The symbolism and style of St. John of Patmos makes it even harder to grasp the message of hope it was intended to give. And it messes with my imagination. What I am talking about is Good Omens: the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. Penned by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, it tells the story of Armaggedon in British Humor where... simply put, an angel and demon figure out what the effe'd up mess they got themselves into when the antichrist is gone missing. If any of you sulkers-bacause-it-might-be-the-end-of-the-worlders need a bit of cheering up, here's a riotous good read. What is ironic is that I was terrified with the subject when I was a kid. Now, I tend to just read about it and understand what I can of it.
II. Amusement (mild to severe)
After posting news bits to my social-networking account (since a lot of people were misinformed of the matter and its effects), I was still swamped by chatboxes. You know the kind that pops out of nowhere to interfere with the streamed videos you just enjoy watching? I got over a few of them.
"Hey, Pao! Will an earthquake hit us too?"
"Lilindol daw ba sa Pilipinas mamyang 7pm?"
"Pare, grabe nung sa Japan..."
"SI MARIA OZAWA ANG EPICENTER SA JAPAN!"
"Dami naman bumayo dun, men."
"Will we be able to predict a tsunami? Pwede ba yun?"
"Oo ata."
"Aabot daw sa Manila."
"Hinde ah."
"Earthquake yun, Pao, not tsunami."
"One meter lang pala eh. Kaya ko languyin yun."
"You guys lost me..."
"Tawagan ko na ba nanay ko sa probinsya, pre?"
"Nagpagupit na pala si Justin Beiber"
"WAG NA TAYO MAG-ARAL! MAGUGUNAW DIN PALA ANG MUNDO!"
"gusto ko pa magka-anak, Lord."
We decided to make fun of it to a certain extent that we won't go to hurting anyone's feelings. I mean, it's sad and all, but it will do us no good living in constant fear of the possibility that the world will end by umpty-tumpy-twelve or thirteen, or fifteen. But I still have to say that when the great beast or kraken rises from the sea or wherever, such things surely mess with your head. My imagination's acting up again.
Boiling seas, rivers turning into blood, fish falling from the sky (or it that frogs?), the four horsemen doing their thing. I mean the whole shebang! From what I observed here at the dorm, a lot of people have mixed reactions they bordered to a dozen so I narrowed them down to the common ones. Well, except for the lewed ones like a dormmate asked me, "If I raped this really hot girl today, and the world ends tomorrow, will I still be guilty?" That bit wasn't amusing at all.
FYI: St. John of Patmos loved mushrooms. So that might account for the way the Book of Revelation was written.
III. Figuring things out (theory: this is exactly what made Atlantis disappear)
Our discussion earlier led to some pretty good scientific bases. From the core heating up, the pacific ring of fire, asteroid strikes, global warming, Scrat of the Ice Age franchise messing up the world; to movie and teevee plotlines based on actual scientific and biblical theory Armaggedon (starring Bruce Willis), Knowing (starring Nicholas Cage), End of Days (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger), the list goes on. Nostradamus effect, the tensions in the middle east that might lead to WW3. Just name it, and I have a long discussion about each of them. Since I was held as the resident repository for the whole disaster/doomsday genre, it just made me more glum. Will our generation be the one to go down in the history books (I guess it would be such a short paragraph) as the generation that witnessed the last days?
IV. Deal with it. (some ignored it, some did something about it)
Regardless of the hype, the strangeness, fright it may cause, life will go on. I remember Chang Kwai Cain's lines in the TV series Kung Fu: "it doesn't matter if we have a long life or a short life, both are just fleeting moments in time."
It makes you think as well about how to deal with what we are faced with now. Some might just be paranoid about it. Personally, it just makes me want to spend time with family and friends. And I swear to high heaven when I get home after exams I will do just that. It will just boil down to how we deal with it, really. My dad would always say that, "maybe that 2012 thing will just reveal a huge change in the world." I like the thought, too. Since it gives a hint of hope, no matter how vague it may be. So the following days, weeks, months... er... or year, still try to get up in the morning for your early jog. Still go to school and get effe'd up with friends. Still eat those things that ruin your diet. Still do what you do. Still work. Still pray. Still pray and work.
As my favorite brand of liquor says, in large, friendly cursive:
"Keep Walking"
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