i won't do this often but...

i think it's pretty important.

whenever a major disaster hits and tens of thousands of people die, i always feel weird. i feel bad for not feeling bad. but the fact of the matter is that i don't know those people, those human beings that were killed. they live really, really far away. i don't know what their neighborhood looks like, their house looks like, where their kids go to school or what they do for a living. i really don't know anything about them at all. but they are human beings and some estimates for the myanmar cyclone and china earthquake are getting beyond the 100,000 mark. if something like this happened in the US, everyone would be up in arms. that also makes me feel weird.

anyhow, i heard a piece on npr that i thought i should share. melissa block, a npr reporter was in china during the earthquake and put together this report for "all things considered." in this story she takes one example of literally millions of possibilities and shows the impact this devastation is having. she follows a young couple as they search desperately for their two year old child and the child's grandparents. it's a pretty intense, personal story and melissa block clearly cannot hide the emotional impact it's having on her (and she shouldn't try to in my opinion.)

i think it's important when stuff like this happens to take a step back and think about it. it forces you to ZOOM OUT. look at the world from outer space and look at your problems compared to that world and take a big deep breath. we get mad when we get a can't get the video looking just right, can't find our car keys or are going too slow on our apartment remodeling project. thinking about a story like this is not really fun and doesn't make you feel awesome but it sure makes you grateful for the important stuff; life, good health, family and friends.

imagine that you're in their shoes when you listen to the story.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90447603&ft=1&f=1004

p.s. if you feel compelled http://directrelief.org/ is a good charity working on this stuff.