Today’s installment has nothing to do with promotional products. In fact, it’s not even my typical, lighthearted fare.
I’ve been on CNN.com numerous times throughout the day, following the breaking news of the earthquake in China. I simply have no words to describe how staggered I am by the amount of destruction Mother Nature can cause. They are reporting more than 8,500 lost lives.
8,500 people.
And all this in the wake of the recent disaster in Myanmar. The toll there keeps rising, but at this point, it’s way beyond normal human comprehension. My brain is literally shutting down at the sheer magnitude of these numbers.
Thinking about how, especially on the East Coast, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone not touched by Sept. 11 or Hurricane Katrina, it’s unfathomable to think of how the citizens of both China and Myanmar (where those affected are among the nation’s poorest) are reacting to their current situation.
At this juncture, it’s hard to care who’s running for president or how all of our tax dollars are going to be spent once they get there. It’s hard to care about writing blogs, making deals or even the fact that the computers went down at our offices today and I lost an entire article I’d been working on. When things like this happen, everything else becomes small. Insignificant.
As my editor, Nikki Stella said to me about a second ago, “It’s a powerful reminder that we are powerless.”
And, yes, we are powerless against the rage of Mother Nature, that’s true. I guess I’m just writing this post to remind myself, and maybe (hopefully) you that, even in the face of complete vulnerability, we still have a choice. We can choose how we react to the given circumstances, and whether that means a prayer said or a dollar donated, choose to not forget these people. Because when even when the world gets to be a little too much to bear (no, scratch that. Especially when the world gets to be a little too much to bear), it helps to remember that we are all connected. It’s a small comfort, but a comfort, nonetheless.
