When I was one and a half, my family, then consisting of my dad, mom, 2 week old brother and I, lived on territory of Guam. My dad was in the Navy and was stationed there for two years. Guam is an island that is, at max, thirty miles long and in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I don't remember much from there, but one day does stick in my mind. My mom and I were in the middle of playing my favorite game of "pushing Rachel up and down the hall in a laundry basket" when the house began to shake. At this point, Mom had pushed me back into the living room by the couch. She grabbed me and pulled me to her chest, holding me tightly and talking to me, trying to keep both her and I calm. I remember seeing my Dad over her shoulder with my little brother wrapped in a blanket, also against his shoulder. Dad tried to get Mom to move outside, in case the house collapsed, but either she didn't listen or was so intent on keeping us both calm, that she didn't move from her kneeling position on the floor. I can see Dad's back as he moved out the door and vaguely remember seeing a palm tree swaying back and forth in a way that seemed almost like rubber and the ground moved in waves.
Now, looking back, I think it was so strange that I can remember something like this even at a young age. But then again, it makes sense because it was a natural disaster. Because of my reading of Ovid's Metamorphosis, I thought about how in even in the first few pages, the cause of earthquakes was caused by a blow from Neptune's fork. I also looked into other stories about earthquakes and found a Norse myth about them. Loki, the god of mischief was involved in the Death of the god Baldr and was punished by being placed under a snake dripping with venom. His wife would catch the venom in a bowl, but when she would empty the bowl some would drip into her husbands eyes and cause him to move and strain on his bonds which was the cause of earthquakes.
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