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I was fortunate in 2004 to have spent some time in Las Vegas with my family over the Christmas holidays and I have never in my life seen so much humanity in one place or at any one time. Your senses do not prepare you for the canopy of noise that assails you wherever you go or the dazzling artificial light that radiates from every building within the city.
The whole effect is geared to disorient you when you enter one of these great buildings that have been built to resemble New York, Paris, or Venice. Once in, it is very hard to find your way out again and because there are no clocks or natural light you tend to lose track of all sense of time. Once you have entered one of these great edifies you find that everything is geared to entice you to spend money whether it be on dinning in the many restaurants on offer or visiting the many in house attractions and shows, or just playing the gaming tables or slots. The choice is endless.
Don’t get me wrong I found myself carried away by it all like everyone else at first, but then I started to get a great insight into the human condition and how we all can be lured into a false sense of security in even our most humble surroundings. During the first few days of our stay I noticed that both I and my family suffered dryness of the mouth and headaches. One day I was having a conversation with a local man who let it be known that one of the commonest causes of death in Las Vegas was from dehydration. It then hit me the city was built in a desert; our surroundings had hidden that fact from us. Even though we had drunk cup after cup of coffee it had, had a diuretic effect on me and my family and we were slowly dehydrating the surrounding dry air drew the moisture from our bodies. I noticed that we seemed to sweat very little if not at all. We were introduced to a drink that replaced water loss quickly, so we started to drink it by the gallon and fortunately did not suffer any further symptoms.
We all tend to forget how fragile ones life is and often take it for granted. How many people enjoying last Christmas’s holiday sunshine on warm sandy beeches around idyllic islands foresaw the danger of a tsunami until it was too late? What a terrible loss of life; what a tragedy. The religious communities of the world are still praying for the people who have suffered from the aftermath of the tsunami. I believed that praying has done well for those who have suffered; I am certain it has done well for the mental focus of those who had prayed. They have become more compassionate people.
What about all the natural disasters that has been experienced around the world since then? We must never take our lives or the lives of others for granted or allow ourselves to be led into a false state of mind in regards to our environment. We must all begin to fully appreciate the life that our God has given each and everyone of us.
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