No one plans on a volcanic eruption in their backyard, but it isn’t as uncommon as one might think. Not when there are so many unseen forces at work in the depths of our worldview. Just ask Jeannie and Kevin…
by Gary David Stratton
Volcán de Parícutin at the height of its eruption.
It was a perfect winter’s day. The skies above central Mexico were clear and the temperatures cool. Dionisio and Paula Pulido labored side-by-side in their cornfield never imagining the horror about to erupt between them.
When Dionisio heard strange rumblings, he glanced at the sunny skies and reassured his wife, “It must be thunder from a distant storm.”
When they felt a few small tremors, they laughed again and joked, “Who’s afraid of a little earthquake?”
Their nonchalant strategy nearly cost them their lives.
Little did they know (third-person omniscient), deep beneath the unsuspecting couple a massive magma dome was slowly pushing a conduit of molten rock directly towards their farm. Only when the tremors became strong enough to cause nearby trees to sway did Dionisio and Paula realize something was seriously amiss.
Transfixed by the movement of the trees, they looked up just in time to see the ground in front of them suddenly swell 10 feet in the air and crack open like an egg. Smoke and volcanic ash poured out of the crack with a hiss and the foul smell of sulfur. Dionisio and Paula ran for the local village Parícutin for help.
By the time they returned with their friends the next day the build-up of ash and lava had created a giant cinder cone. Scientists rushed from around the world to witness the birth of the massive Volcán de Parícutin. In less than a year, the Pulido’s once tranquil cornfield towered 1,500 feet over the Mexican countryside burying two towns in a massive lava flow nearly ten miles in diameter.
Volcanic Honeymoon
Saint Tropez: The perfect destination spot for a volcanic eruption.
It was a perfect summer day in Saint Tropez. The azure waters beckoned Kevin and Jeannie[1] on the first morning of their Mediterranean honeymoon. Jeannie had always dreamed of spending the first week of her marriage on the French Riviera and the travel site made their romantic hotel look almost too-good-to-be-true. So it came as quite a shock when they quickly realized that the travel site had failed to mention that their hotel faced one of the most famous nude beaches in the world.
Kevin immediately suggested they find another location, but Jeannie was determined to live out her fantasy honeymoon. A little too determined, Kevin thought. Like rumblings of distant thunder out of the clear blue sky, both lovers felt the unusual tremors in their relationship, but nothing could have prepared them for the volcano about to erupt between them.
Kevin’s own life story had prepared him for this very moment… or so he thought. He had grown up in a family that rarely spoke of negative emotions (even when it was obvious someone was hurting.) He had learned the value of striving to make a hurting person happy without directly engaging their pain. Kevin reassured himself, “She’s just uncomfortable with her own body.” So for the rest of the day, while they kept their clothes on (thank you!), Kevin carefully kept his eyes on Jeannie and never missed an opportunity to tell her how beautiful she was.
It was a strategy that nearly cost them their marriage.
Rather than making things better, Kevin’s ‘Avoider’ Strategy only contributed to the eruption that followed.
Little did they know, deep beneath their relationship, the hidden story of Jeannie’s abuse at the hands of a neighbor (long repressed by Jeannie) had created a massive magma dome of pain that was slowly pushing a conduit of molten mistrust toward the unsuspecting couple.
Without realizing it, Kevin had hit upon the exact strategy of flattery and professed affection Jeannie’s neighbor had used to lure her into abuse. As the day wore on, Jeannie strove to stifle a rising sense of inexplicable panic as she bristled at Kevin’s every affirming word and stiffened at his every touch.
It was only a matter of time before the eruption broke the surface. That night the lovemaking that had been so simple and easy the evening before suddenly felt like an unspeakable horror to Jeannie. When Kevin initiated a tender embrace, Jeannie’s soul cracked wide open as a decade of hissing ash and lava came pouring out.
Jeannie’s life strategy of maintaining ‘perfection’ now included her personal checklist for being the perfect Christian wife.
Panicked and confused, Jeannie turned to her pet strategy for surviving childhood. She had learned the value of being the perfect “good girl” to maintain order in her chaotic inner life. So she willed her way through the rest of the evening like the perfect Christian wife striving to cover up her lack of emotional participation.
Her strategy was nearly as damaging as Kevin’s. While he was incapable of addressing it, her dissociation was obvious to him. Fearing she was pulling away, Kevin began redoubling the very strategy that was driving Jeannie away until all hope of physical or emotional intimacy was lost.
By the end of their week in “paradise,” the build-up of ash and lava had created a cinder cone over 1500 feet high between them. Within a year, Kevin and Jeannie’s once tranquil relationship was buried in a massive lava flow of pain and rejection neither ever saw coming.
How could they? It erupted from much too deep in their worldview for either of them to detect.
Micro-Worldviews
While we inherit much of our worldview from the macro-worldview of our parents, family, church, and society there is more to us than the cultural patterns we’ve assimilated. Our highly individualized personality traits and life experiences foster a unique micro-worldview that often causes us to interpret events and make decisions very differently than anyone around us.
Even children who grow up in the same household often end up with radically different worldviews due to the differences in their birth order, family system, and personal experiences outside the home. Like the layers of a volcano, the Story of our life events, family system, and key relationships (Level 1) often lead to a highly personalized Value and Belief System (Level 2), which in turn gives rise to unique personal Strategies, Rules and Roles (Level 3) that erupt in our lives in our Behaviors and Actions (Level 1). (See, Casablanca and the Four Levels of Worldview.) [2]
In Kevin and Jeannie’s case, their Christian macro-worldview was no match for the more powerful and personal micro-worldviews formed in their childhood experiences. While both of their parents had strong marriages, and their church’s premarital classes and mentoring had taught them the Christian macro-worldview for building a healthy marriage, there were altogether different stories shaping their marriage.
Intellectually, Jeannie knew Kevin was not an abuser. She didn’t even consciously remember the abuse. Yet, emotionally, she knew something was wrong. Intellectually, Kevin knew that Jeannie wasn’t reacting to him. Emotionally, he couldn’t help feeling rejected.
Of course, this only increased Jeannie’s sense of self-hatred. She had built her life around being a “perfect Christian.” Now, she couldn’t even be a decent wife. And of course, Kevin had to ‘fix’ everything, not by asking, “What’s wrong?” but by desperately attempting to alter Jeannie’s emotions. The stories, belief systems, and strategies of their micro-worldviews short-circuited their every attempt to live out the Christian marriage macro-worldview they professed. And Kevin and Jeannie are not alone.
While their eruption may be more extreme than others, it is a reality faced by nearly everyone on earth.
Here’s why?
Next:
The Volcano in your Backyard, Part 2
[1] Not their real names. [2] What I am calling the ‘Story’ level of worldview here, is what philosopher James K. A. Smith refers to as the ‘pre-worldview’ level of ‘social Imaginary.’ “The social imaginary’ is an affective, noncognitive understanding of the world. It is described as an imaginary (rather than a theory) because it is fueled by the stuff of the imagination rather than the intellect: it is made up of, and embedded in, stories, narratives, myths, and icons. These visions capture our hearts and imaginations by “lining” our imagination, as it were— providing us with frameworks of “meaning” by which we make sense of our world and our calling in it. An irreducible understanding of the world resides in our intuitive, precognitive grasp of these stories. Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies): Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Publishing Group, 2009), p. 68.
