Life becomes molten

"The word 'crisis' is of Greek origin, meaning a point of culmination and separation, an instant when change one way or another is impending. ... Life becomes like molten metal. It enters a state of flux from which it must reset upon a principle, a creed, a purpose. It is shaken perhaps violently out of rut and routine. Old customs crumble, and instability rules." (Henry Prince, Catastrophe and Social Change, as quoted in A Paradise Built In Hell, Rebecca Solnit, 2009; page 79).