discovering death--entertaining my brain

I spent a good portion of the day watching the Discovery Channel, and I don't know if it was a special event or something, but all the shows I caught were about cataclysmic death and destruction. First came a show about the dangers of space weather and what a giant solar flare would mean for our planet--namely a dazzling light show that would result in the fiery, radioactive slaying of all life on earth--followed by a show about mega-tsunami (not that they really had to point out the damage one of those could cause, unfortunately) and finally, Pompeii: The Last Day, which basically re-enacted that last moments of the people of Pompeii before Vesuvius smote them all in 79AD and warned that Vesuvius could go at any minute.

It wasn't happiness on the Discovery Channel, but it was all fascinating to watch. I try not to worry about things like deadly space weather and things of that nature, because I worry about everything else--like work and money and getting eaten by a giant squid.

Watching Mother Nature at her worst is kind of reassuring in a way--maybe because it's something completely out of my control. As silly as it sounds--especially to myself--it's comforting to know that some things will happen regardless of my actions. I don't know why that puts me at ease, especially since I know how frightened I'd be if I were ever confronted face to face with Nature's wrath.

I have had dreams--just a couple--about having an effect on weather and natural disasters. They were both rather odd. In the first, I had this one a while ago, I was high above Earth and focused on the Pacific Ocean. Out in the middle of the ocean, I notices this sphere of water just below the surface. I moved my hand over it and discovered I could move it. I realized that the sphere was El Nino and moved it closer to the California coast line. I could see weather patterns changing--the jet stream dipping, storm fronts forming--and then I moved El Nino back out to sea as if I was using a computer's mouse.

This weekend, I had another involving an impending tsunami off the eastern coast of Long Island, NY (I guess hearing about it in the news so much chiseled it into my subconscious). I had to be a giant because I saw both of the far eastern forks of the island at once. As I moved further west along the island, I noticed houses of the rich and smirked and said that when the tsunami came, the people who were able to afford such lavish homes wouldn't have a problem rebuilding and would collect a lot of insurance. I don't know if that's true or not, but it was in my dream world. That was really all that happened with that one, but the image of it is still strong in my mind.

Maybe i'm better off watching sitcoms.