Tsunami

The waves have caused untold coastal devastation.

As I write this, it looks like 23,000 people are thought to have died as a result of the earthquake in Asia. The undersea quake caused tidal waves which have swept away thousands upon thousands of people. One moment happy coastal residents or tourists, the next, gone. It's a tragedy of massive proportions, and we must expect the numbers of casualties to rise as time proceeds.

I'm just really sad that so many people have lost loved ones, and that many complete families have been obliterated by this disaster. It's a happening on a scale that I can barely conceive of. I wake up each morning and expect the people I know to be around me, or on the end of a phone. I take the constancy of my existence very much for granted. Were any one of my close friends to die suddenly, I would be devastated.

But what if..... what if all of them were to be snatched away from me, and I was the only survivor? It really is totally outside my scope of imagination. I do not have enough empathy to grieve alongside these unfortunate people, or enough insight to comfort them. I am touched by their predicament, yet utterly unable to help.

We must rely, I think, on the strength of human resilience to win through. Life really does go on. People will rebuild the houses, reconstruct the towns and villages and set about the business of living again. In short, they will survive this. Before long, it will be as if this had never happened, but for the stinging pain in the hearts of those who have been bereaved.

Let's not forget them too quickly.

Comments

[tom]

Well said

[AndyC]

Thanks, Tom.

[AndyC]

it really sucks