I wonder…
What?
I meant… what does a philosopher think about when he/she is seeing an errupting volcano? Does he think…yes… what can he think then?
my first thought is usually BUMMER I HOPE THOSE PEOPLE CAN RUN FAST ( with special reference to the artful yet traumatising remainders of Pompey and poisonous gasses). A while ago some idio…, um, people, actually believed that they would go to heaven if they jumped into volcanoes so a few hundred people gave it a try. nice. I think I’ll try that one soon ( reminds you kind of of Christianity doesn’t it? Muha ha ha ha ) Or secondly, to be more poetic, I envision it as earth having a giant pimple, and thirdly, I look at the colour schemes and go “that’s hot”. Fourthly, I think "Mmmm…a chance for new life to develop on the lava-covered and renewing land. I wonder which types of flowers will develop on the clean soil that will land there? Lastly, I wonder what was happening beneath the earth there. Or I might just think, “Hey, maybe there are people out there who will use the event of this errupting volcano in a philosophical conversation which should actually have been a poetic conversation”.
I have seen a few erupting volcanoes in my travels. Some from 30,000 ft and a couple from pretty close up, ie flying around them at a few hundred feet.
That this perfect 7,000ft tall Mt Fujiyama style volcanoe that has been like that for time out of memory can suddenly erupt and deform itself into a huge mishappen lump in a matter of days really makes you think about how fleeting our existence is in the grand scheme of things and how little our existence matters to it.
It is awesome and humbling.
We are less than gnats when compared with erupting volcanoes.
I sometimes wonder over strange issues, indeed. Run fast would be my first thought in case of sight of bursting out volcano. I also wonder what all these people thought/felt when tsunami came and washed them out.
What did they think standing on the shore and seeing the huge/enormous wave speeding straight into them. Well… I wouldn’t like to know it.
Well… generally I think in old days philosophers were people who tried to explain many things, make them clearer. Probably ancient philosophers tried to explain people why natural diseasters happen and kill people in such unicivil way.
Today philosophers make this world only more and more confusing and sad. I don’t know any positive ideas they can give me.
Or maybe I know too little facts… thus I asked about the philosophical attitude to a sight of errupting volcano.
Thanks for reading my letter.
Last time I saw an active volcano I was thinking about whether I left the stove on in the kitchen.