Not a Spectator Sport
The disaster in Asia is still unfolding with projections of loss to near 200,000 souls. This will probably be the largest natural disaster in known history. Don't just sit on the sidelines and watch, get in the game. I was going to list links to a few places you can donate to help the tsunami victims, but there are so many it would be hard to choose between them. My employer already made an offer to collect and send in donations for us from our paychecks, and I imagine many of yours will make that offer as well. Take advantage of it, or help the relief organization of your choice,
but do something. Some day your children and grand children will ask you about this.
David Blaine [7:02 AM]
Sad Way to End a Year
Wake Up
Seers, oracles,
minor prophets,
singing psalms,
carrying signs.
The end is near.
We scoff, guffaw.
Go home, read
the obits. A dozen dead.
Just another day.
Turn the page,
a handful more born;
parents beam
and laugh at the doomsayers.
It's about the scale,
about being palatable
in small doses.
We watched two grand dames
tumble into the street
eagles snarled
and flaming in their hair.
Three thousand died,
we were enraged,
demanded vengeance.
Under the sea
the earth yawned,
sent walls of water
hundreds of miles.
Over one hundred thousand died.
The scale was no longer digestible,
barely comprehensible.
We were aghast, in shock.
Demanded understanding.
We woke up
on this side of the water.
Seers smiled. The end had come,
saints had boarded an ark.
Today perhaps they see their rainbow.
They woke up on the other side.
To us they appear to still sleep,
but only because we see
with eyes shrouded in sleep.
It's the only palatable explanation.
Today we woke up
on this side of the water,
but the future's uncertain
and the end is always near.
David Blaine [8:18 AM]