The nature of catastrophe is after all reasonably unvarying in the way it ruins destroys wounds and devastates. But if something can be learned from the event - not least something as profound as the theory of plate tectonics - then it somehow puts the ruination into a much more positive light.
Peter Ustinov was the first really positive influence in my career. He was real and he bore witness to it. The things he said to you he lived them.