Fire and Ice

“Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice “

As the little known volcano in Iceland spewed ash, lava, dust amidst swathes of ice sheets; the above lines by legendary writer Robert Frost sprung back into my memory. News presenters struggled to pronounce its name – Eyjafjallajökull and aviation business became as restless as the volcano with each passing day. My sister and her family were traveling from India during that time. As I anxiously checked their flight status, I couldn’t help but appreciate the beauty of the image of the volcano flashing on the news websites. It seemed like an angry painter picked up his brush and used the boldest, brightest and darkest colors of his palette. The images were just surreal. Strangely, the images of disaster have a mystic beauty associated to them. From the giant waves of tsunami to blinding lightning, every pixel of such pictures command awe and brilliant color schemes. These days when our busy minds always keep on thinking about the “could-haves”, “should-haves” and “would-haves”, this random occurrence surged the following thoughts in me.

A quaint named thing on the globe could connect so many random lives together for a few days. In this overly connected world of disconnected individuals, there are hardly few events which can perturb many. Front line news headlines swiftly go back to page 5 on the next day. Kudos to Mother Nature for holding the attention span of so many people for a few days! As I prayed for my family’s safe travel, I thought how many people like me would have been directly and indirectly affected by this natural drama. What if, something happens and air travel service gets stalled completely? I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if one fine day three volcanoes at the major navigation points of the world (Iceland, Japan and North-west America) simultaneously decide to burst and airlines stop for good. How would we see our near and dear ones living thousands of miles apart? It was a humbling realization what could nature wreak on our lives.

The incoming train of thought was a little philosophical. The elemental forces of nature- Fire and Ice resides in all of us. Passion, desires symbolizes fire and hate symbolizes ice. The norm is to brand these forces negative and destructive. So we always try to harmonize our deepest desires and feelings to pursue perfection. But these aspects of human temperament make us more aligned to the nature. After all, Nature too displays her bad moods in her own ways. So just like the volcano in a glacier; only when we let play these forces for a while in us, we can be truly spectacular and real.