Master Reset

I’ve been checking papers over papers since Monday (I haven’t finished even half of it), and in my pursuit to escape the stress I will do my best to elucidate my thoughts about the not-so-recent onslaught of Ondoy and Pepeng.

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I have been staying in Manila for about 7 years now, and I must say that the Ondoy flooding is the worst that I have experienced—even worse than Milenyo, which packed strong winds that uprooted trees and brought down gigantic billboards.

Flooding isn’t something new in Manila; it has been part of a Manilenyo’s life. Indeed, flooding is something that became a routine…everyone expects flooding during the August-September affair.

But this time it’s shocking. The floods instilled fear and paranoia among Filipinos.

Months (or probably years) before Ondoy, a lot of programs, documentaries, and advocacies regarding Global Warming have been shown all over the world—so famous that this topic became the favorite topic in the Cause-Effect essay in my Academic Writing class.

But really, this isn’t new. I can still remember my grade school teacher telling us to bring our own “trash bag” inside the class—somehow, it created an impact on me, because I was able to train myself not to throw my trash anywhere, and keep it in my pocket instead.

From constant observations about climate changes, I can’t help but think of probable reasons why these things happen. In reality, people immediately ask God for allowing these things to happen. But if we analyze the prophetic pronouncements in the Bible along with Historical facts, I think we will find some tinge of clues and answers to our own questions.

Why does God allow these things to happen? I think it’s precisely because of man’s arrogance. Isn’t it true? Don’t we really thirst for learning? For answers to questions that remain questions?

Since Adam and Eve, man has constantly unraveled the unknown. People thought that they can reach God through the Tower of Babel, until God buried it to the ground. Engineers thought they can create an unsinkable ship until the Titanic sank. Americans thought they have created a military might until the fall of the twin towers, and so on, and so forth.

Everything to no avail.

With the same analysis, I came up with an idea that God (or whoever Divine out there if you don’t believe in God) pushes a “Master Reset” button whenever man reaches its ultimate sinful nature. This is probably the reason behind the 40 days and 40 nights of flooding during Noah’s time when people forgot about God and “partied” all day and night long. This is possibly the reason behind the burning of Sodom and Gomora when people became so immoral to the extent of planning to rape Angels.

However, in each of these episodes, someone lives. Noah and his family endured the flood in an ark; Lot survived the wrath of fire…and we…we lived to tell the story and teach it to our youngsters.

On second thought…we also lived…a species of our kind lived…to continue the “legacy” of polluting the Earth…and killing the next generation.

At any rate, the somehow good news would be the Master Reset Button, which is within God’s reach.