Once you have been in an earthquake you know, even if you survive without a scratch, that like a stroke in the heart, it remains in the earth's breast, horribly potential, always promising to return, to hit you again, with an even more devastating force.
Interpretation
Surviving an earthquake leaves a lasting impression of its potential dangers, reminiscent of deep-seated fears.
This quote by Salman Rushdie captures the profound psychological impact that experiencing an earthquake can have on a person's consciousness. Even if one escapes physically unharmed, the fear and anxiety about the unpredictable power of nature linger on, suggesting that such an experience changes one’s perception of safety and vulnerability in the world around them. The metaphor of the earth 'breast' holding a 'stroke in the heart' implies a deep connection between humanity and nature's potential for destruction, reminding us that the threat may always exist beneath the surface, ready to resurface with possibly greater intensity.
In practice
In a lecture about natural disasters, one could use this quote to emphasize the psychological effects of surviving disasters.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
The greatest delight the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me and I to them.
Forests were the first temples of the Divinity, and it is in the forests that men have grasped the first idea of architecture.
To the great tree-loving fraternity we belong. We love trees with universal and unfeigned love, and all things that do grow under them or around them - the whole leaf and root tribe. Not alone when they are in their glory, but in whatever state they are - in leaf, or rimed with frost, or powdered with snow, or crystal-sheathed in ice, or in severe outline stripped and bare against a November sky - we love them.
We shall never understand the natural environment until we see it as a living organism. Land can be healthy or sick, fertile or barren, rich or poor, lovingly nurtured or bled white. Our present attitudes and laws governing the ownership and use of land represent an abuse of the concept of private property.... Today you can murder land for private profit. You can leave the corpse for all to see and nobody calls the cops.
Autumn clouds, vague and obscure; The evening, lonely and chill. I felt the dampness on my garments, But saw no spot, and heard no sound of rain.
You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she'll be constantly running back.
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