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Friday, January 07, 2005 The Sea - A Peaceful Place to FearOn the day of the tsunamis, at the very midday hour here in Oz that all chaos was breaking loose elsewhere, we were enjoying a beachside meal at a restaurant L'Aquarium right on the sand at Sorrento. Could not imagine a more idyllic setting or occasion - good food and friends, sand and sun outside, and peaceful blue water calmly lapping while the dog sat under a shady tree on the sand.Troy Broadbridge's dad had much the same to say of the beach at Phi Phi "When you look at this place, it's as peaceful and beautiful as any place on this earth. In a place like this it doesn't seem quite real yet." He is speaking, of course, of the spot where his son Troy, no.20 for the Melbourne Football Club, was cruelly taken by the tsunamis (leaving his wife of one week, Trisha, to recover alone). Football in 2005 will be a sadder affair for those of us who enjoyed watching Troy in action on the MCG last year - Troy's best for the club. A player of vitality and passion, who on occasions was capable of true brilliance. Vale Troy Broadbridge! In today's Age, an article Treacherous and Alluring Sea. It begins Joseph Conrad knew the power of the sea. "The ocean has the conscienceless temper of a savage autocrat spoiled by much adulation," he wrote in 1906. "He has gone on swallowing up fleets and men without his resentment being glutted by the number of victims." While modern people tend to romanticise the ocean, not so our ancestors and particularly not so the Jews apparently. Traditionally they have feared the sea - it speaks to them of God's judgement. In fact, the sea represented chaos to the Hebrews and other ancients, and all water tragedies were regarded as forewarnings pointing to a final day of judgement! The final storm will come on account of human sin - we must do as the disciples did in Matt8:23-27 (which wasn't just a few big waves, it was a "great storm" or megas seismos in Gk!) - call "Lord save us". There are many quotes like "the ancient Hebrews feared and hated the sea and have never shown any evidence of being a sea-faring people..." and as Jenny Diski points out (book review "The Children of Noah: Jewish Seafaring in Ancient Times"), Noah was more a survivor than a sailor (although back on land, he did exhibit an elemental trait of the old seadog in getting blind pickled)! And the reluctance of Jews to get their feet wet is rather useful today for a politician like Sharon: "the primary, and familiar, fear that Mr Sharon draws on, the one that allows him to claim all aggressive actions as defensive ones, is the fear that Israel's neighbours want to drive the Jews into the sea". Quelle horreur! Where Is God When Disaster Strikes? # posted by geoff @ 1:48 pm 0 comments
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