The first thing that crossed my mind as I watched the aerial view of the tsunami surging across the coastal area of Japan was "apocalypse, the end of the world." I experienced the 7.1 magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake whose epicenter was just a few miles from my home back in 1989. But this Japanese earthquake was 8.9 and lasted approximately two minutes compared to just fifteen seconds. We humans are as ants on a big, round anthill -- that has natural distasters now and then.
But as I thought "apocalypse" and "end of the world," I realized that this kind of thing has been happening throughout the history of the Earth. It is not a stagnant, inanimate round lump; it is dynamically alive and organic. Some natural disasters could end much of life on the planet, or, more likely, could dramtically change the way in which various species survive. Civilization as we know it could end; solar storms could easily burn out space satellites and disrupt communication and the grid of communication for some time.
What I noticed was that I immediately went to a Biblical interpretation and view of "apocalypse," complete with the "end of the world" scenario, with "God" inherently if not directly involved. It was almost a comfort to automatically bring in a mythological story about "what would happen." We do the same thing with ourselves when we think about or approach death; when people die, they are free of all concerns and, if they were "good," they go to Heaven and are with God.
I don't believe it's like that though. I don't believe anything is so simplistic and superficial as that. So I checked "apocalypse" and found it to translate as "to uncover, to reveal." On a grand Biblical scale, it means "Revelation," however, "apocalypse" is not "The Apocalypse," and should not be defined as such. So, now I consider apocalypse as an uncovering or revealing. What is uncovered? What is revealed? Our selves as human beings, first; in fact, as human beings quite interconnected with all other human beings. I watched what was happening in Japan, and I realized that what mattered to me was that people like myself were drowning, that people like myself were going through very painful, hellish experiences. I felt their fear, their pain, their confusion, their helplessness in that moment -- even as I sat comfortably and safely in my living room watching it all TV. At that moment, in their lives and in my life, our humanity was being uncovered.
Was this merely a fear that "it could happen to me"? Or was it an actual experience of "their" pain and fear as if it were my own? When something "bad" happens to someone else, do we, for a brief moment in our imagination, put ourselves in their place so as to somehow be prepared for such an occurrence if it were to happen to us? Is it a kind of preparation for the worst so that we might be able to better survive? Or is it a kind of almost unconscious compassion; a sharing of the pain they are in so that they do not have to bear all of it?
I am not so interested in answering this question as I am in posing it. It is a question for each of us to answer for ourselves. And what I'm most interested in conveying here is that it is more important to be able to recognize and respond to what is being uncovered and revealed about us as human beings, and particularly, fellow human beings, than it is to revert to some Biblical fairy tale about "end time." It may be that "end time" will, in fact, come in due time, however, in the meantime, we are human beings whose shared humanity is all to often unexpressed, covered up, and unrevealed. Let us recognize an apocalypse as an uncovering and a revelation of connectedness as human beings. We may have many beliefs about God or no-God, which may or may not be valid, however, our relationship and interconnectedness with all other human beings, and all other life for that matter, is a reality most of us can acknowledge. If the world ends, fine, but in the meantime, let us learn to find the other in ourselves, and live accordingly.
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