I don't think I'm very good at talking about tragedy. I freeze up at wakes and never know what to say. I'm always looking for the perfect words, because the right words would fix everything...right?
Of course no words will ever be perfect enough to heal the loss of a loved one or an enormous tragedy like the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that has hit Japan, the after affects of which are now reverberating throughout the Pacific Rim.
I feel sick looking at the footage. I'm thinking about my friend Yuko's family in Japan as well as other college classmates from Japan or friends who moved to Japan after graduation, about Sabrina in Hawaii.
What can I--what can any of us do?
A blog post seems pretty pathetic compared to a wall of water. I just wanted to say, here, that I'm thinking of those people. The sweeping camera footage can show us the power of nature, but it can't show us how it feels to have the water rising around you, to see buildings crumble, to not be able to find your beloved cat when you have to evacuate now or to leave behind the only photo you have of your grandmother.
And, to be honest, those are the lucky ones--so many people have lost their lives. I can't even comprehend it.
One sweep showed a neighborhood underwater, and in the top window of a submerged house, a person waving, asking for help. Watching, I felt guilty. Why wasn't anyone helping that person? That cameraman was me. That person in the window was me. That person is all of us.
And of course I'm thinking of Christchurch, New Zealand, which suffered its own devastating quake several weeks ago. I didn't know what to say then, but I'm still thinking of them too.
So. I will pray. To who? I don't think it matters. And I will send my love and I will hope that somehow, it helps. I hope you do the same.
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