Tsunami, The: December 27, 2004

• The 52nd anniversary of my parents' wedding is
  December 27, 2004. A more tragic event will forever share that date as its anniversary; continental plates at the bottom of the Indian Ocean in or about Indonesia changed their positions, generating a 9.0 quake that killed thousands of people in the vicinity of the epicenter, and the tidal waves (tsunami) generated by the movement of the earth killed thousands more in countries that had shores on the Indian Ocean in Asia and Africa. As of this writing, the count is reported to be over 30,000 and rising, with thousands more people missing.
• Many Buddhists were "taking ritual baths in the sea to mark the full moon" (USA Today, Dec. 27, page 7A), I guess as part of their quest for enlightenment and Nirvana. Going about their ritual, they had no clue that they were about to perish. No matter what their strife in life, no matter their satisfactions, all was rendered extinct in a moment, of no significance to anyone.
• That tells me that maybe there was no significance from the beginning, or, as the existentialists say, each person is significant only to himself, and that only while he lives.
• The universe is impartial, and
• You can run, but you can't hide.