Monday, April 13, 2015

A 3.5 Earthquake is Nothing

I was sitting in my chair and watching a show on Netflix on my computer when I felt a small tremble. It turned out that it was a "earthquake", a 3.5 earthquake. I had one of my children in the house and they didn't even notice. Having said that apparently  a bunch of people took to Twitter to say how big it was. It was nothing.

Living in Southern California and certain other places means you will experience earthquakes, small, medium, large and devastating. They are not all the same; but, people who did not grow up with them freak out. I just laugh and wonder why they are such wimps. That is the question why do people get so freaked out by earthquakes and yet, not have the same fear about hurricanes? I think I have a possible answer.

Most natural disasters can be easily understood. In the end a hurricane is just a really strong storm and we understand storms. A blizzard is a really strong snow storm and we understand snow storms. Even tsunamis make sense because anyone who lives near the sea understands it's amazing strength. We look to the earth to provide our stability, we trust in the land and believe we can own it, that it can be ours. That all goes out the window when you experience an earthquake. An earthquake proves to us that we have no control over the world, not even the land.