For someone who has lived through a massive earthquake (as I did in Taiwan in 1989), the disturbing thing, even for someone who has lived in earthquake zones for years, is the aftershocks. They build up to a doubt about whether the earth can ever be counted on to lie still. Now after more than a decade of living somewhere where earthquakes are unknown, I largely am back to counting on the earth beneath my feet to lie still. (The danger here, and it is a considerable danger, is slipping and falling on ice. That paralyzed my dad for the last six years of his life.) The earthquake news from Japan brings back a lot of memories from the Ring of Fire. Many people there will be wondering over the next few weeks if the term "solid ground" has any meaning at all.