It never stops to surprise me how we think that what happens to us is the single scariest, most traumatic experience ever.
Take earthquakes for instance. When we saw the tumbled Christchurch Cathedral and the frantic race to rescue people trapped in slumped buildings, we thought nothing could ever be this bad. Then along came Japan's Magnitude 8 followed by a Tsunami. Then came Auckland's 2.9.
And it WAS scary for people who had never felt one before. Packed on top of their experience was all the news of the recent catastrophes and the fear: could this be one too?
Perhaps we could reframe the earthquake experience and realise it is not individual earthquakes we are feeling but the outward, unpredictable shaking of the earth's crust stretching and tearing as the plates move. We are not having separate experiences but different shades of the same out-of-control event. The most disturbing thing is nobody is safe, ever, from these kind of events - all the insurance in the world won't fix it.
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