I've started this blog to share with those that may be interested in sports, books, topical news and the justice system as it applies to cyberspace and generally.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The Christchurch aftershock...
300 dead is a lot to think about, to put down, place aside somewhere tidy that doesn't rip mine, and your, heart apart.
Things like just don't happen here. They happen in other countries where we can deposit a couple of dollars into a bank account and feel ok, because we did something.
It doesn't matter what we do here, or how many dollars we give nothing will bring back the loved ones lost. Our pain won't be eased by throwing some money at it, or giving a few hours for free. The pain from Tuesday's tragedy will never leave us.
Whether we live in Christchurch or some other place in Aoetearoa, none of us will ever feel completely safe again standing in our own homes, going about our daily tasks, buying a coffee. These people weren't flying in some plane that fell from the skies, they weren't in some other country, where bad things happen to lots of people.
They were doing the same things we all do, everyday, going about living in very ordinary ways.
Here one minute, gone the next. It just doesn't happen here. Not like this, not in such a devastating way.
Tuesday has taught us that even here in Godzone, life is a temporary condition, and far too precious to waste.
I'm unsure what it has taught me as yet because it continues to unfold. A lot of people aren't talking about it, having become introspective. Others are torn by the need to do something when physically they can't. I keep recalling a woman teacher waiting for word of her husband also a teacher (and she confirmed a writer and musician who would be helping others if he could, so she thought) and who was later confirmed dead, she held herself with amazing dignity when she must have been busting inside for the man she loved. I guess we will all hear, see or read different things that will touch us individually. I think of long dead relatives who spoke about the Napier earthquake and the years of rebuilding, I think of NZ families who lived through war that was never as immediate as this but just as horrid day in and day out. I think of the people still buried and I think of the first night I watched events unfolding on TV and saw young men working with their hands and with wood to try and dig people out, young men who on another day might have been thought of as louts or boy racers or of a different race showing ultimately that in ordinary life we exclude ourselves and others for reasons that probably don't exist.
Things like just don't happen here. They happen in other countries where we can deposit a couple of dollars into a bank account and feel ok, because we did something.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter what we do here, or how many dollars we give nothing will bring back the loved ones lost. Our pain won't be eased by throwing some money at it, or giving a few hours for free. The pain from Tuesday's tragedy will never leave us.
Whether we live in Christchurch or some other place in Aoetearoa, none of us will ever feel completely safe again standing in our own homes, going about our daily tasks, buying a coffee. These people weren't flying in some plane that fell from the skies, they weren't in some other country, where bad things happen to lots of people.
They were doing the same things we all do, everyday, going about living in very ordinary ways.
Here one minute, gone the next. It just doesn't happen here. Not like this, not in such a devastating way.
Tuesday has taught us that even here in Godzone, life is a temporary condition, and far too precious to waste.
I'm unsure what it has taught me as yet because it continues to unfold. A lot of people aren't talking about it, having become introspective. Others are torn by the need to do something when physically they can't. I keep recalling a woman teacher waiting for word of her husband also a teacher (and she confirmed a writer and musician who would be helping others if he could, so she thought) and who was later confirmed dead, she held herself with amazing dignity when she must have been busting inside for the man she loved. I guess we will all hear, see or read different things that will touch us individually. I think of long dead relatives who spoke about the Napier earthquake and the years of rebuilding, I think of NZ families who lived through war that was never as immediate as this but just as horrid day in and day out. I think of the people still buried and I think of the first night I watched events unfolding on TV and saw young men working with their hands and with wood to try and dig people out, young men who on another day might have been thought of as louts or boy racers or of a different race showing ultimately that in ordinary life we exclude ourselves and others for reasons that probably don't exist.
ReplyDelete