Acts of What?

Volcanic Plume in Iceland

I was in to see our travel agent yesterday and she was frazzled. All day she has been problem-solving and soothing customers who are unable to fly on their scheduled flights to Britain. The erupting volcano in Iceland has filled the air with a fine ash that can clog up jet engines, causing catastrophic loss of thrust. In other words, planes fall down, go boom. While everyone flying would choose caution over death, it is a major inconvenience, one which might go on for days or weeks. In Iceland there are threats of major flooding as the nearby glacier melts from the heat.

I have been thinking about acts of nature, or Mother Nature, or God, to trot out some of the familiar terms. As humans we try to comprehend the impact of events over which we have no control. Earthquakes such as the one which hit Tibet and China this week and the eruption of the Icelandic volcano are fascinating and disturbing. We continue to use the term "acts of God" even though few of us believe that God is smiting sinners by giving Earth a shake. It's just that we aren't sure why these events seem to randomly affect some people and not others and we wonder when it will be our turn. Of course we humans tend to think of events that affect us as the most important.

The summer that Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines (1991!) we were living in Northern Ontario. The mantle of ash in the atmosphere caused a signficant drop in temperature. We went camping with our young family along the Superior shore and it was so cold in July that our water bucket had a skim of ice each morning. Our family vacation began to feel like a frosty form of child abuse.

Travel won't be any easier today with an estimated 17,000 flights affected, the biggest disruption of air travel since 911.

Any reactions or observations to what you are hearing and seeing? If they aren't acts of God what are they?