Tsunami

This is a word that has become a part of our culture as we embark upon 2005. I watch, a half a world away, at all the devastation, death, sorrow, and destruction that the forces of nature imposed upon the island nations of the Far East. I can only marvel at the immensity of this catastrophy. I view with amazement over how so much force can produce so much upheaval.

Yet I don't feel any sense of loss.

"What?? How can you be so heartless?", you say? I'm not heartless at all. I'm clueless. I've never been in a tsunami. I've never had one third of my population washed away. However, I've had a few great uncles/aunts, grandparents, and both parents pass away in my lifetime. I haven't even had close friend killed by a drunk driver. So, am I heartless or am I just lucky?

Fact is, we all need some type of a handle in order to come to grips with reality. The tsunami for me is not reality. For someone living in Indonesia, it is very much reality. In reality, I was good friends in college with many from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand who came to the US for their education at my Alma Mater, Arkansas State University. I haven't seen them since 1985. I wonder if any of those I attended University with were victims of the tsunami? I haven't a clue. It's not a part of my reality.

But what is a part of my reality is the tsunamis that I face in my own life. The overwhelming feeling that I'm being swept away by a force that I cannot control gives me reason to be uncertain & fearful. There are times that I experience right now that can be compared to a tidal wave that is fast approaching & has the potential to sweep away my very livelihood. And right now, that is more treacherous than anything I've seen on the other side of the globe.

Then, just this week, I read where the two Mars explorers have celebrated their one year anniversary on the Red Planet taking Polaroids like crazy...far outlasting NASA's wildest dreams. One one hand, death and disaster -- and on the other, exploring of a new world. Just as there will always be some kind of tsunami lurking around us each day, there are also visions of hope & curiosity right there, too. We just have to try as best as we can to see it through all the water that is rushing toward us.