Monday, February 01, 2010

The Coming Avalanche

While generally considered cataclysmic, there are always preconditions leading up to the event--an over-accumulation of material both too heavy and unstable for the base to hold. Walls are built to contain it and, perhaps, they can be made to work. Mostly, they only exacerbate the problem; creating a condition of even greater pileup. Stresses build. Great effort is exerted in attempts to ignore the situation, but the cracks are clearly visible. Questions begin to grow about the solidity of the base itself. Will the whole thing simply come down? Could the wall itself be the problem? Might it have been better to just deal with each eroding storm as it fell? At this point, these questions appear merely rhetorical. And, here I am, reduced to the passive voice.