Fire and Ice

When we visited Iceland together, my Mom told stories of the Vikings and volcanoes. Known as the land of fire and ice, in Iceland it is possible to sit on warm sulphuric mounds (or lava crust) and reach just a few feet over to grab a handful of ice. It's an incredible land, this country, one that puts you in your place if you understand the power of what lies very close beneath your feet. In Iceland, I walked on fresh lava fields, drank glacier water from a stream and bathed in milky blue hotsprings. This is where I decided that, in my next life, I would be a geologist.

On our trip, I took photos of a boiling pool that my mother had bathed in 12 years earlier. Now too hot to touch, I stood atop a crust of sulphur at the edge of this pool and felt the roar of water blasting out from under me. This pool sits at the base of Kafta, a volcano that has been ready to blow for some time. Now, the Eyjafjallajokull volcano has begun to rumble, and the worry is that an eruption at Kafta will be triggered in its wake. All I can think of are the pots of steam we saw all over the country and the houses surrounded by hardened lava.

Recently, Iceland has suffered economic collapse and its citizens just rejected a new plan by the government to pull the country out of crushing debt. And now this? If I learned anything on my trip to Iceland it's this: these people are survivors. They eat putrid shark and sheep's head, their museums display children's toys made out of bones, and they have only recently entered the modern world. The people of this country (only 320,000) will show the rest of us what it means to hold fast and make due.

Time to call Mom and see what she thinks.