The pictures are heartbreaking — almost unbelievable. As New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie remarked, “The level of devastation at the Jersey Shore is unthinkable.”
There have been multiple deaths, major destruction, and now massive need for clean up. Extending along the coast and even branching eastward into Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, etc., the impact has been environmentally and economically huge. Gov. Christie is right; the devastation is unthinkable.
So what do we do when unthinkable storms happen? … the seemingly unprecedented, natural disasters?
I suggest there exist two starkly different responses: one rooted in arrogance — one, however, rooted in humility… two ways we respond when the unimaginable storms come our unfortunate way.
Allow me to suggest that the arrogance is often veiled; it’s an imperious approach that typically manifests itself within some form of blame — blame of another person or circumstance — but blame on something so concrete that potential disagreement is muted. How can we disagree with a blame spoken with certainty? How can we oppose a reasoning seemingly so concrete? Yes, the arrogance guised as blame allows us to have an answer for the storm, even though reality often means the answer is at best ambiguous.
Almost simultaneously as Sandy destroyed our nation’s shores, multiple persons proclaimed that the concrete reason for the storm was climate change (also known as global warming or insertion-of-currently-most-politically-correct-and-or-convenient-noun here). Former VP Al Gore, for example, wasted little time in labeling Sandy “a disturbing sign of things to come,” adding, “We must heed this warning and act quickly to solve the climate crisis.”
Now before proceeding with this posting, allow me to add a small but significant disclaimer: the Intramuralist does not know whether or not climate change is fact. I do not know. I don’t know if it’s true or if it’s false. Reasonable people disagree on this issue, and many of those most passionate on one side or the other are either agenda-driven or stand to personally benefit by the enactment of the argument. Hence, I’ll say again: I don’t know if climate change is true or false. No one knows for certain.
What I do believe, no less, is that when we assume that climate change is the reason for a weather event, we are acting arrogantly. Please… I mean no disrespect. My point lies within the basis of the theory. The basis for climate change is that dangerous weather events are happening due to changes in the Earth’s climate that have materialized due to man’s irresponsible behavior.
At first, such sounds fairly selfless — man’s irresponsible behavior. Does that not sound selfless? Where is the arrogance?
The arrogance lies within the focus; the focus is completely on man.
Within the climate change theory, there is zero acknowledgement of a potential divine being who may or may not have a purpose of which we are unaware. There is no intentional corporate nor individual reflection that asks, “If there is a God of the universe — if he has allowed this — what could be the reasoning? How, possibly, could this be part of any intentional plan? Is there a reason? A plan? A consequence?” The arrogance of the climate change theory is the assumption with certainty that we are the ones in control. There is no submission to any God of the universe nor to anyone wiser or more omniscient than we. Hence, true or untrue, I find the absolute blaming on climate change a veiled, arrogant approach.
But wait… where’s the second response to these storms? … the one rooted in humility? … the one that makes us feel a little better?
Watch how people now bond together… to clean up… support one another… and to love one another well. To sort through the ruins… building each other’s houses… putting their houses back up on the rock… and encouraging those whose loss is yes, by all means unthinkable. At times of crisis, the humbly beautiful approach is where we work side by side regardless of color or creed, income or demographics, or any potential disparity.
A wise approach to life’s storms means focusing on what binds us as opposed to what rips us apart.
Thank God… until Tuesday, at least.
In search of wisdom… always…
Respectfully,
AR