Shaken and stirred

After nearly two months of residency in the San Francisco area, it finally happened. I experienced my first earthquake.\nWhile lying on a futon in Oakland at 4:30 a.m., peacefully acquiesced to my freshest bout of insomnia, I was jolted from half-dreaming by a lung-shaking tremble I knew I could not attribute to the bullet train that rushes past the house every 20 minutes, nor the trash truck that sounds like the herald of the zombie apocalypse twice a week. \nNo, this was an entirely new vibration. It came from deep underground, from the earth saying, “Remember, I am much bigger than you.” Fifteen seconds later it was over, but the message reverberated loud and clear: There is much that is bigger than me.\nNow that I was awake, I kicked back and meditated on what a gift it was to have experienced something new and how there is much is in our world to shake us up, just as there is a myriad of entities bigger than we are. I could list all the terrifying realities that want to eat you and which you can do nothing to prevent. (Who needs M. Night Shyamalan? Watching an episode of Bill O’Reilly is enough to keep me hiding under my covers for weeks). \nBut there’s no reason to scare you with reminders of all that you are incapable of changing (The abysmal story line of “Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix,” for instance. Oh, the humanity!). “Look! The world is a terrible place!” Yes, Misters Blitzer and Cooper, we know it’s sad and terrifying. Excuse me while I cry into my Turkish coffee and do not do a damn thing since we’re apparently careening into a black abyss of doom and despair.\nI am sick to death of the ruin-laden scare tactics used by both journalistic camps. Fox News wants us to believe that people from south of the border and non-Christian folks are going to, I don’t know, steal candy from our children and the American dream from our rich white men, obviously causing us all to die horrible deaths alone. CNN, on the other hand, consistently threatens nuclear holocaust and the impending third world war courtesy of our own government’s ineptitude, then intermittently attempts to placate us with Lindsay Lohan and this week’s “crew of ducklings saved from automobile demise” story. Ducks? You tell me we’re all going to die, then try to distract me with ducks? And people are surprised that the most-prescribed drugs here are antidepressants. \nThere’s no use in focusing on what we can’t change. Doing so is the safe harbor of those too lazy to actually try. It’s the responsibility of all of us to shake up our own corners of the world by causing the changes we wish would happen. No, we can’t prevent biological warfare or undo the Iraq catastrophe, but we can fight for the causes of human dignity and equality. You are a power greater than the sum of your parts. Don’t let the pundits frighten you otherwise.