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From Eliyahu:

Shalom friends,

Feeling the ground shifting under your feet can be a very scary feeling. I've been through a few fairly small tremors at times and I remember wondering what would happen next. In those cases, fortunately, nothing too overwhelming did happen next. It was really more scary when I was on the phone having a normal conversation with a family member in California. Suddenly there was an alarmed voice on the other end of the phone, announcing that the house was shaking. Abruptly, the phone went dead. In the end it turned out alright, just another reminder of how quickly normal life can be rudely interrupted by the threat of imminent danger.

There is another kind of quaking and shifting that can be even more disquieting. At this moment, while writing the previous line, a friend who doesn't know what I'm writing says; "I've always got weird stuff I've got to deal with." I couldn't put it better myself. A lot of us feel that way. Too much change, too often, is irritating and disconcerting, yet, seems to be coming at each of us in an unending stream of micro-shocks. It gives one the feeling of constant tremors in our lives, coming to each of us like shifting ground under our feet. The shifting ground in this case is not the actual ground though. It is modern human society, shaking and quaking everywhere.

Weird science, weird weather, strange health problems, a lot of strange people, the fragile economy, crazy politics, world tensions between nations, shifting societal norms - shaking, shaking everywhere. What does all of this change actually mean? Take the specter of ever-present corruption and scandal for example. We get numb to it after a while, but should we? Maybe it means something. Consider this for example: