This is a text which I wrote right after the quake happened and posted onto my blog. I don’t know why but I got an urge to write something. I was with my friends but probably I needed to feel more connected with large number of people, desperately. I haven’t read it since.
It’s 21:29. Earthquake is still on going.We’ve never experienced this.
When it happened, I was in a cafe with my friend, we were like, it can’t be that bad so waited for a while, just exchanged anxious looks. However, it went on and on and got worse and worse. Everything was shaking. Coffee slipped from the tray. Wow. I said, FUCKING HELL then I grabbed my friend’s hand and went outside. I felt that it wasn’t usual at all. Everyone was outside, no train was working. We decided to walk back to my apartment; as we walked in front of all the expensive labels stores and things, we talked about how not important they are. AT ALL. Finally we got my apartment which is on the 7th floor, when I opened the door I was shocked. Everything fell off and destroyed. It was still so shaky so we had to fuck off right away. Now I evacuated to my friend’s house nearby. I don’t want to be alone for a while.
This morning on the way to meet my friend, I was listening to the audio book of The Picture of Dorian Grey. That was a part when Dorian discovered how beautiful he is by witnessing the portrait of himself. He then realised that NOTHING LASTS FOREVER, one day he’ll get older and lose his beauty. Then I thought, when you realize beauty of anything( yourself or the world, anything), it works as a curse because you’ll also know, someday you’ll lose everything and then, surrender.
I don’t know, I can’t write well yet
I never experienced any...
I never experienced any earthquake. Not even a small one. So, it’s hard to imagine for me how it feels. The buildings in Japan seem to be well-engineered to withstand even powerful quakes. In other countries (e.g. Haiti) much smaller quakes have disastrous results. But I doubt there will ever be protection against such a Tsunami that reaches 3 km into the land. So, there will always be the danger that you lose everything within a few seconds. Will this change peoples attitude towards life? Will you don’t care anymore about „expensive labels“, as you write? I doubt it. People will quickly switch from „emergency mode“ back to „normal mode“, and that is as it should be. It’s how our minds are biologically fitted in order to protect our mental health. People are incredibly strong with overcoming catastrophic events in their lives, like the death of loved ones. For some reason I just looked up the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on wikipedia. Over 200.000 killed (not just killed actually, but burned to death). I am sure some survivors are still living. They just went on, moved forward, worked, raised a family. The trauma is still inside, but they are strong enough to still find beauty in life ever…
Just a few words about Dorian...
Just a few words about Dorian Gray (before I have to leave for my Saturday morning swimming): If you continue reading (or listening), you will see that it’s actually not about the curse of vanishing beauty, but about the curse of staying beautiful and young. Btw: We now see a lot of pictures from the Tsunami area displaying older people. I think there is a lot of beauty and grace in these old people…
Dear erichnabokov,
Yeah,...
Dear erichnabokov,
Yeah, Dorian Gray is one of my favourite books. I read it repeatedly. You are right, but that one particular part gave me the thought. Also about expensive labels…I know each people have different value system, I respect the difference. All I can say is, at least me and some friends will never be cared about these products with logos. Don’t get me wrong, I do respect craftsmanship. However, I don’t want to be a rep of these enterprises by wearing their logo around my body. I’m just not into it anymore.