07-11-2018, 04:52 PM
quote:
Glinda - Does it need to be clearer than that?
Well said.
Of course it was laid out perfectly in the scientific literature and a perceptive person could easily find it writ large in the landscape, not to mention the ancient oli and hulas.
Of course most people who made their homes here knew it could happen - but thought we'd never see it in our lifetimes and played the odds.
I think it's a human thing to see the ground underneath your feet as something permanent - something that won't change very much in your lifetime. Watching the ground rip open in your backyard and erupt floods of lava that radically change miles of land in just a few days is a mind blower that's hard to conceive of ahead of time, no matter what you know.
The jagged edges of that reality are what you have to accept to live here. But over time the pointy parts get mellowed by sunset skies and fresh trade winds. They're blunted by whale sounds and double rainbows. Smoothed out by baby luaus and fresh picked avocados from your neighbor. Etc. etc.
It was just so easy to forget.