the big one

while living in l.a. i remember seeing a billboard asking "are you ready for the big one?"
it's a reference to the mass destruction earthquake that's apparently overdue for the region.
this morning i came across this article: California's 'big one' might be a megastorm
as if we needed more fear in our lives.

the problem is, it's not really something you can prepare for unless you want to move away completely.  then again, every corner of the world has it's natural disasters.  choose your poison?  or how about quit talking about it?  if you're a scientist it makes sense to study and discuss it amongst other scientists.  but telling the public and coming up with hypothetical disaster scenarios just to get people worked up is foolish.  it's sort of like telling a little kid about the rapture.  like a haunted story passed down from generation to generation.  each one of them dying without seeing the horror of it all, but sensing the urgency of it.

that's sort of how our song came about ("the big one" http://doomandgloom.bandcamp.com/ )  liska and i tend to come up with plans for different disaster situations.  the disaster isn't what's so frightening, but the idea of being apart in the midst of that, or the constant dread of one person dying before the other.  on bad days we joke (half joke) about wishing for a disaster to just take us both away at the same time.  i suppose that's both depressing and romantic.  which is kind of how the song feels, but with a healthy portion of hope.

"if it's true what they say, stop listening.  if it's true what they say, it's not true today."