You, Me, and Junot Diaz

steinski

Just in case you're wondering where the heck

I've been, 

well,

my response is:

when a woman is my age, she should be allowed some lapses --

I get lost--

in thought,

in dreams,

in space,

whatever,

where-ever --

and then the rest is silence.

This is not to say my heart isn't beating.

I hope yours is, too.

2.

Well, tonight I read an article that made my heart skip a beat,

in the UTNE Reader.

Now, seriously, folks, 

I haven't looked at an UTNE Reader

in a couple of decades,

but there it was, and I started reading --

and found this article:

Dispatches From the Apocalypse

(by Junot Diaz)

In this provocative article, Diaz contemplates how the catastrophe in Haiti

embodies Apocalypse,

indeed, it is Apocalypse

for the people of Haiti.

At the same time, 

it - and all other disasters -

reveals the true Haiti --

"Apocalyptic catastrophes don't just raze cities and drown coastlines;

these events, in journalist David Brooks' words,

'wash away the surface of society, the settled way things

have been done.  They expose

the underlying power structures,

the injustices, the patterns

of corruption and the unacknowledged inequalities."  And,

equally, they allow us insight into the conditions

that led to the catastrophe, whether we are talking about Haiti

or Japan."  (Diaz)

He proceeds to discuss how these disasters help us see first

the "true face" of a country:

as Katrina exposed "America's third world,"

Haiti exposes "the third world's third world.'

In many instances, these Apocalyptic disasters reveal

the way that humanity has defaced 

the planet, and in so doing, made it more vulnerable,

and susceptible

to disaster.  

The problem is,

according to Diaz,

that we just won't see the writing on the wall,

or on the planet --

I urge you to read this article.  I feel

uncomfortable summarizing and quoting it all.

Suffice it to say I agree with Diaz when he says:

"After all, apocalypses like the Haitian earthquake

are not only catastrophes; they are also opportunities;

chances for us to see ourselves, to take responsibility for what we see, 

to change."

Recently, we have been receiving our fill of

mini apocalypses,

disasters that have left thousands,

even millions,

of people dead, and entire regions

decimated.

They stay for a day or two in the news,

then fade away from public attention.

But this does not mean they fade away

in real time and space --

locally, in Haiti and in Japan and elsewhere

the dead are still dead,

the dying still dying,

the destroyed still rubble,

etc. etc etc..

As apocalypses propagate, 

the true apocalypse

may be just around the bend,

and when it does,

the potential for salvation

and second coming,

ends up lying soully

and solely

in us and us alone.

I sing along with Diaz when he says:

"One day something terrible will happen,

and for once we will heed the ruins.

We will begin collectively to take

responsibility for the world we're creating.

Call me foolishly utopian,

but I sincerely believe

this will happen. 

I do.

I just wonder how many millions of people will perish

before it does."