A couple of days ago there was a 5.3 earthquake of the west coast of Portugal at 5:11 am. A lot of people were shaken by this and weren't able to go back to sleep. For a few days, that was the main topic of conversation among people. After all how common is it for the earth to shake beneath our feet. It turns out, that it is quite common, but most of it is so mild that people dismiss as if a heavy lorry just drove by the street and shook some windows with the unwanted trepidation.
The truth of the matter is that we are all frightened with our own demise. It shakes us to the core to know that we might die at any minute, that it is beyond our control. The illusion that we will leave a bit longer is important to permeate the false sense of security we might have. This is quite simple a middle class problem, a group of people who think they have the bare minimum to live a comfortable life, but are not aware that they are slaves to a system of existencial rules that they help to impose everyday by living according to what is expected or perchance to impress others.
So I guess, in symbolic terms it is good to have a quake every now and again to remind us all of our mortality, even though, the shake itself is insufficient to awake the soul inside the mindless drones that roam the daily life as ordinary citizens. They are all trying desperately to fit in, in a society that is designed to crumble if the earth shakes too much, because altruism and compassion are not in the front mind of most of them but rather pride, envy and ambition.
Until we quake again...
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