Current Events

When I was born, there was no internet to spread word of protests in the middle east; no internet to see live video on demand of a wave of water overwhelming Japan's water walls. There was no Facebook, no Google, no Blogspot.

Yet now these things are a part of my everyday life, so much so that I cannot imagine a time in college without them. What would Williams be - could Williams be - without cell phones to help us find each other as schedules shift, or web-resources that make directory information so accessible?

But the image to the top right confirms that which history tells us - this world has always been interconnected, whether on the tendrils of a tsunami wave reaching by oceans or by the diseases carried by foreign armies that wrecked havoc on native populations (ahem-Amherst!-cough). But now we know and see it - a random dude looking at a rainbow and Zach Anner show us that, as we spend a cognitive surplus seeking hours and hours of free dynamic entertainment via screens.

And then disaster strikes. Tsunami, cyclone, hurricane, epidemic, tornado, earthquake, blizzard: simply living has never been safe (though I live in a pretty calm part of the world for this stuff), and we never know when each gallon of drinking water will become invaluable. Life on a Japanese Street was completely ordinary until the water swept through.

I worry, sometimes, that we're living in that sort of moment, that an oncoming environmental disaster will truly push us back in years to come, to an era where these were the true good ole' days, but then I remember the incalculable human spirit - that we can accomplish wonders, sometimes, even in the midst of horror. That courage is possible in the face of death and despair.

And so, we move onwards with our lives,waiting until the next crisis comes to us, and hoping that we might be equal to it. I don't know if any of this makes sense - its pretty late - but the upshot is that I think things will always happen, and I'm glad to have an education that will help prepare me to deal with many of them.