Eyjafjallajökull

Until Thursday I, like most people, have never heard of Eyjafjallajökull. Ever since it started spewing volcanic ashes into the clear Icelandic sky, it made it clear to all of us how small we humans really are.

Obviously, when we take time to consider it, we all know that man is but an anecdote on the pages of natural history (I am sure I heard this phrase somewhere, just in case I made it up - it's 1p per use). However, we rarely do. And by rarely I mean well-off Europeans and North Americans. You see, most natural disasters are extremely discriminatory; they uniformly impact the poor rather than the affluent and more often than not, the darker-skinned rather than caucasian.

The Haiti Earthquake January 13th, 2010. The Tsunami of December 26, 2004. Even Hurricane Katrina, August 29th, 2005 in the US.

For the first time in a long time, a natural disaster is hitting the rich, white inhabitants of the North Western Hemisphere. You see, they are stranded abroad. Now, I use the word stranded very loosely. Usually, when I think of 'stranded' I have in mind something like being trapped under an avalanche or looking for water and shade on a desert island. In other words: immense physical discomfort and consistent uncertainty of actual survival.

Not really the case for most Eyjafjallajökull "strandees". Think of MGFs T&N, "stranded" in Antigua. Horrible, isn't it? Stranded on a small island in the middle of a big ocean. Not knowing when they can get back home. I am truly struggling to compose myself. Bottom lip shaking and the lot.

So, not really the same thing as the Haiti earthquake. At least not yet. You see, in 1821 one of Eyjafjallajökull's colleagues did something similar . . . for 8 months! In 8 moths T&N will have grown dreads! Rather difficult to imagine N that way. Not so much T.

So, hoping that this whole thing is over soon and assuming that its only impact is delaying a few flights, I would like to thank Eyjafjallajökull - the great leveller of Iceland's landscape and social strata.

PS Made it to 340km today - just over a 1/3 down, 660km to go. Had to run 15km to make the week's quota. I feel ready for a half-marathon.