起死回生

Who can swear that our unconscious is not expecting this?
Derrida, "No Apocalypse, Not Now"

Statistics show that Japan experiences an earthquake in or around its vicinity every five minutes.

It is home to cutting edge expertise on how to minimize the destruction triggered by an earthquake.

All these words seem so meaningless, in the face of the aerial shots of the devastation wrecked by the quake and ensuing tsunami, that are being aired on loop by news channels around the world. When you see pictures of old women being evacuated from their homes on the shoulders of toughened soldiers, when you see unexplained explosions from nuclear plants, when you see homes turned to rubble and rubble to black debris being carried along by 10 metre high waves destroying more homes, it sinks in:

One is never really safe from the unpredictability of life.

Ironic how the night before the quake struck, I was watching 'Worst Case Scenario' on Discovery, where they showed how to safely get out of a car trapped in the water. My first thought, when I saw the images of cars being swept away by the angry tide, was 'I hope the people in Japan were watching it too'.

*Japanese Proverb 起死回生(kishi kaisei)
Literally: Wake from death and return to life


Meaning: To come out of a desperate situation and make a complete return in one sudden burst.