so this all happening with the earthquake-tsunami in asia is really starting to get me pretty bothered. i remember when i first heard about this. The only thing that i was really struck by was how hard it was to concieve in my mind of such devistation. it is literally taking days for the horror of what has and is happening to sink in. with this comes all kinds of thoughts such as my current distubance of wondering why this always happens somewhere else. you never hear about hundreds of bmws and mercedes being washed away like pebbles down sunset blvd. i just read that the death toll is nearing up to 120,000. relief is coming in the form of body bags so that they can manage the overwhelming number of bodies they have to do some thing with. it is not a little package of canned food and toys, it is a tool to help them work through the dead. i can't even begin to understand that many dead bodies. but we go on with our day and allow our "drama" to consume us and make us feel important. i know that sounds really bleeding heart-ish but it is the truth man. tonight i got in an argument with a man because he wanted to get a refill in a cup that i thought he pulled out of the trash. and now i sit here freshly showered with all my expensive bath shit listening to music that i bought on the internet with a credit card trying to get tipsy enough to not worry about my stupid little dramatic life. and as i sit here searching for news about all of this i have to look really hard past the articles about how this new years celebration is going to be hard for single people and how recent polls show that pre-schoolers are getting progressivly fatter. and then suddenly there it is, a picture of a little girl sleeping in the dirt in the middle of the road of what they call a "shelter" she is just cute enough to hopefully capture your attention and somehow spark some interest in what is to be said in the article that follows. and i have to fight with my temptation to just look at the pictures rather than actually read about what is really happening.
in a situation like this, the question of the problem of pain is more than fitting. but i offer up a question about something that i think is valid as well, the problem of pleasure or comfort. wow, that was a bit dramatic i know, but i had good intentions.
5 comments:
wow, you just articulated perfectly how i have been feeling. well done, i couldn't agree with you more.
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
--The Problem of Pain
Derek...you can hear Him in others' pain. I say, do what you can with what you have. I say, let me never be complete. I say, let me never be content. I say, deliver me from swedish furniture.
D-tock
you are right, when i am done blogging i will spend the rest of the night worrying about myself. that may never change. i noticed change is only dedication. it wouldn't be an evil world if we truly put others before ourselves. only problem is that it is and will always be an evil world.
derek thank you. and you're right... we thought we were so devesated by 9-11 but that one incident here is an every day occurence for so many nations. i am just tired of feeling helpless and selfish, and wish i had the abilities to care more about others i have never met and less about myself.
this was such a terrible thing to have happened. i hate that so many people died and are stuck without a home, food and clean water, and I am mad that the New Years Eve party i planed stressed me out more than this. but if we are looking for the good in every situation (not to just ignore the bad) but i think that we truly can find the good in every situation, this event did stir us all to compassion and that is a great thing.
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