What a tragedy.
I'm not talking here about the earthquake, devastating as it was and is. The reports are of widespread destruction and a horrible loss of life.
I'm talking about our collective inability to get along. We're fine in a crisis. At The World Trade Center on 9/11 everyone worked side by side and forgot about age old rivalries and feuds.
We all responded with cash and human capital when The Tsunami hit a few years ago.
People helped one another during Hurricane Katrina, letting go of ancient racial biases for the moment...maybe except that one old white guy in The Garden District who said, on national television, that he would shoot anyone trying to get into his house.
We can't seem to act lovingly toward one another unless we're in a crisis. We hate each other on Monday and then...bang...Tuesday there's an earthquake and suddenly we're all brethren and rushing to help.
But we do that no matter what the situation. We drive tanks and use fossil fuel as if it will last forever...until we have a crisis...gas is $5.00 a gallon. Then we junk our Hummers and start riding bicycles. Al Gore is a pest when oil is $50 a barrell and he's a saint when it's $100.
We smoke until we get lung cancer and then we swear to stop.
We're all Burt Reynolds at the end of "The End" when he's bargaining with God to save his drowning life...just until he can touch the bottom...then he's not so sure about what he's willing to do.
We are so myopic and selfish. Where are our hearts (and heads) when we have no crises?
Question: What the hell is the difference between a child in Port-au-Prince on Monday and a child in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday?
Answer: Nothing
We see the picture Tequila Minksy shot in The New York Times and run to help. Hypocrites.
So...I repeat...what a tragedy...that we all can't get along all of the time. That we can't see everyone as a neighbor on this too small planet. That we can't help one another all of the time...not just when the roof is, literally, falling in.
"What goes around comes around..."
We should be ashamed.
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Kevin, I do agree with you however I also believe that there are a lot of very caring people who on a daily basis give from their hearts. They just do it silently because it's pure. They don't need recognition for their generosity or their love. Self is what they give, they don't know selfiness. Tradgey makes the rest of realize that we should also be like those people. It makes us feel guilty for our frivolous complaints. Our own selfishness. It scares us because this was not a man made tradgey that we may have been able to thwart. Mother nature can strike anywhere at any time. I think it may be our primitive selves who fear Mother nature's wrath so we pour out in droves to try to make it better, we appease the Gods. Unfortunately in a few weeks maybe months it will all be forgotten. We will go on with our lives. Well, going forward, I will try to be more giving, more open, more loving.
ReplyDeleteSend my love to Mia and give yourself a hug for me.