The ongoing
tragedy in Japan offers a great deal for us to think about, from how we can
help to how such catastrophes can happen in a world where Spirit matters to
what it says about human beings’ ability to plan wisely.

I will begin with
the most important short run issue: how we can help.  It is easy to think we can do nothing given the magnitude of
the disaster, and the possibility it may grow far worse with nuclear problems
added to seismological ones.  This
is not true.

HuffingtonPost
has a site where we can learn about how to help.  I will be making my donations today and hope my readers will
as well.  Even $10 can help. 

(New news) Peter Dybing, First Office of Covenant of the Goddess, has started a site where Pagans can assist Doctors Without Borders in helping the Japanese. (Thanks Argante!)

How can such
things happen in a good world?  For
I know this world is good as much as I know anything at all.

Modern science
increasingly shows us that volcanoes, ice ages, massive storms, huge fires, and
yes, earthquakes, all contribute in important ways to making this world as
beautiful and fertile as it is.  I
would argue that a living world of duality, and of matter, has these
characteristics. 

While they have
led to great beauty they are also most unpleasant phenomena when we find
ourselves in the midst of the creative destruction that leads to them.  If we are lucky. 

Often we are
simply killed.  Perhaps worse, we
survive and those close to us are killed.

But there is no
malevolence here.  The world is
going about its business, and we sometimes find ourselves or others in unlucky positions
as it does,.  It is no more “evil”
or to be blamed than is a driver on a highway whose windshield is hit by a
small bird chancing to fly low at just the wrong time.

But this is only
the first step in trying to gain a better spiritual understanding of this
horrible event.  For it is
horrible, and nothing I am writing denies the horror.

Across the world
most people have found themselves actively sympathizing with, even identifying
with, the Japanese people who are presently suffering so badly.  The American form of sociopathy we see
in the worship of Ayn Rand’s teachings is challenged at a level it cannot
address: the heart.  We realize we
are all in this life together, and in the face of what the world can throw our
way no planning, no intelligence, no wisdom can provide us complete
safety.  And when disaster strikes,
we are best off if we have others on which to rely. 

Hardship and
disaster reminds us we are not alone, whether as victims relying on the
kindness of strangers, or people whose hearts are opened by the suffering of
strangers.

There are other
lessons we can take from this disaster.

It offers a deep
corrective to human pride.  Yes,
human creativity and energy have transformed the world, sometimes in very good
ways.  But when this energy is
dominated by pride and a feeling of power.  Such arrogance is brought particularly low when events
demonstrate that even our greatest constructions are so much dust in the wind.  (Here is an incredible Google image of before and after images – you simply move the line separating the pictures back and forth to see what happened.)  

This earthquake moved large islands and
changed the size of the earth itself.  The latest research has raised the quake’s rating to an almost unimaginable 9.0.  Only four other quakes in recorded history have been of this size.  Its focal zone of greatest impact was around 300 miles by 100 miles, and the destructive shifting lasted for more than five minutes. Wisdom never forgets that our greatest creations are vulnerable to being wiped out in a flash.  

When we were
hunters and gatherers, these kinds of disasters made comparatively little
impact.  Our buildings were small
and portable, and we had few fixed investments vulnerable to a changing
world.  Tsunamis and the like were disasters for relatively few people.

With the coming of agriculture we staked
our lives on fixed plots, fixed buildings, fixed infrastructure, and so became
more vulnerable to natural changes. It is perhaps ironic that we have possibly just discovered the ruins of Atlantis in a city apparently destroyed by a tsunami, located pretty close to where Plato said it had been.

With the coming of industry we
have gradually decreased our vulnerability to many of the changes that could
bring disaster to farming communities, but at the cost of becoming increasingly
vulnerable to other changes. 
There is a curious dialectic here: as our power to safeguard ourselves
grows, we become more vulnerable to the really big disruptions.  California could lose most of its
agriculture overnight if a big quake wipes out levees, floods part of the
central valley, and destroys its irrigation network.  That will dramatically impact not only California, but the
availability of vegetables nation wide.

Wisdom rather
than pride is what human beings need if we are to use our creativity to truly
make this world a even better place for people to live, and in Pagan terms this
wisdom takes the form of learning to live in harmony as much as we are able with
our earthly home and its cycles. 

Japan has taught
us that human planning can in fact accomplish a great deal, for the destruction
would be orders of magnitude worse if it had not been accompanied by stringent
building standards.  Despite the quake’s awesome strength, structural damage was light compared to what would have happened in less wisely regulated places.  In this respect
the Japanese have been smart, and benefited greatly from their wisdom. Even
though it reduced the profits to be made from rapid construction.

Japan has also
demonstrated that hubris leads to disaster.  Its business and government leaders were warned, explicitly, that their efforts at
building nuclear pants in such vulnerable locations would end in disaster. The
warnings were not exaggerated, but the greed of the businessmen and pride of
the bureaucrats certainly was.  Their
assurances to the Japanese people were worthless.  Our business and political leaders’ similar assurances, coming from similar greed, pride
and illusions of power, will also prove worthless.  At a time when Republicans and many Democrats evidence a
distaste for science and simple prudence here at home, we are well advised to
take heed. The stakes are unimaginably high.

Combining our
lesson in mutual dependence and our need for humility in relating with our
world along with the prevalence of stupid pride among those who imagine themselves
powerful, what are we as individuals and families to do?

Most
importantly, think about what could happen where you live.  I live in Sonoma County, in
California.  We have major faults
running through our beautiful landscape. 
They are in part why our landscape is so beautiful, so that we desire to
live here.  A bad quake, which most
assuredly will happen, will disrupt electricity, many roads, possibly gasoline
deliveries, and water.  Wise
planning takes these possibilities into consideration.

Were I in a city,
where market “efficiency” means there is no more than a few days supply of
food, I would stock up canned goods and water in a safe place for at least a
week.  I would also get to know my
neighbors if I do not already know them, and perhaps get an awareness of what
kind of neighborhood disaster preparedness might be planned for.  And then plan for it. 

Were I close to
a nuclear plant, I would find a way out of the area that is least likely to be
cut off by collapsed bridges, flooding, and the like. (One winter I was able to
get around Sonoma County almost anywhere
even though the highways were closed due to floods because I know the back
roads.) And make sure those close to you know about such routes. 

And so on.  Each place is different and no place is
completely safe.

The point is not
to be paranoid, but to be wise.

Such planning increases our sense of competence at the local level and strengthens local ties
of cooperation and mutual aid. These are both good in themselves.  It also teaches us how to harmonize
with events as much as possible rather than seek to control them, which is also
spiritually wise. 

In the midst of
their truly unimaginable suffering, the Japanese have given us an opportunity
to open our hearts and increase the prudence of our lives, if we are wise
enough to do so.

Again, here is a
site where you can find out ways to help the Japanese people in their time of
need. 

(slight editing done a few hours after posting)