Saturday 8 January 2005

Pic of the day: Based on a screenshot from the anime Windy Tales, as is good and proper.

Dark and stormy night

Indeed, the Norwegian meteorological institute has sent out an "extreme weather" warning, recommending that people on the south and southwest coast of Norway stay indoors. There is a risk of falling trees, loose branches, flooding and avalanches.

The house stands, for it was built on rock. But water is dripping from a spot a couple hands in from the window. Evidently there is a crack somewhere in the outer wall, and the relentless storm has found it and is pressing the water in.

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Of course, even this level of "extreme weather" is fairly soft compared to real disaster such as the recent tsunami in south Asia. I hear that certain religious groups in America blames the tragedy on the proliferation of homosexuals, and pray for a similar disaster to strike North America. I suspect the disasters to strike that region will be different, such as direct earthquakes in California. And bad government probably also qualifies. But I don't think the gays have brought about that ... well, actually only indirectly, by way of the homophobes.

If not so tragic, it would be amusing. Do these people really think that God has some kind of visceral emotions considering sexuality? What kind of entity do they imagine God to be? No, God is not upset by people waving their genitals around wherever they may feel like it. It is for the good of society that sexuality is restricted, to stop diseases going around and to mark a break from the fertility rituals of the old goddess worship of the inner Mediterranean. There is no need to instigate tsunamis and earthquakes when men sleep around, whether with others' wives or with each other. Virus may be slower than tsunamis, but they are already devastating entire countries. Even here in the highly educated kingdom of Norway, more and more gays are infected with HIV as the horror of its discovery slowly fades and it becomes just part of the background noise.

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The darkness of the natural night is no match for the darkness inside a closed mind. And the storms of the air pale before the wrath of misguided men, who trample innocent and guilty alike in their desperate fight against their own inner demons. As said King David when God gave him a choice between various disasters: "Let me rather fall in the hands of God than in the hands of men." Nature may be merciless at times, but hardly cruel. With men there is no such guarantee.