It looks like a movie.
A horror movie.
The images are surreal.
But they are real.
Too real.
The destruction is unconscionable.
One tragic scene more unbelievable than the next.
8.9.
The size of the earthquake that shook Japan.
But rocked the world.
The pictures we have seen are like no other.
No other we have seen.
Since Haiti.
Or the Indian Ocean.
Impossible to imagine.
To imagine the true impact of what we have seen.
Again.
Lives lost.
Thousands.
Maybe tens of thousands.
Cities washed away.
In seconds.
The power of the tsunami.
Creating scenes no one can comprehend.
Washing away everything.
Everything in its way.
Buildings falling.
Falling like they were built on popsicle sticks.
Cars looking like hot wheels.
But they were real.
This was real.
The image of a person.
A real person.
Waving a white flag.
Or towel.
Reaching out of the window.
From the highest point of what’s left of their building.
Looking for help.
Any help.
An image I won’t soon forget.
An image that reminds me of the past.
There are too many tragedies from the day of 9/11.
Too many tragedies to think of just one.
But when I think of the people at the top of the building.
Having no choice.
No choice but to surrender.
No choice but to give up.
No choice but to jump.
100 floors.
Or more.
That is more than I can handle.
Helpless.
We have all felt it.
We think.
But most of us have felt no such thing.
Not like what we have seen from Japan.
Their pain hurts.
Hurts us all.
Their hurt.
Hurts like no other.
But the hurt I feel.
I’m feeling from my home.
From the comfort of my home.
We can text to help.
And many of us have.
Like we did for Haiti.
And we will for someone else.
Earthquakes.
California has been waiting for the big one.
A big one came in 1971. And 1989. And 1994.
And it went.
It took lives.
It destroyed buildings.
But it went.
And someday, this too shall pass.
It may be another generation.
Another generation or more.
Another generation before these events become a part of Japanese history.
For now.
And for many years from now.
It will be present.
In the present.
But each day seems to bring worse news.
Worse news than the day before.
Reports of a thousand bodies washing up on shore.
Another explosion at the nuclear power plant.
Families left to wonder.
Wonder if they will see their family again.
I reached out to my friend.
Whose wife is from Japan.
She has spoken with her family.
And her family is safe.
Thankfully.
But not all stories end that way.
Many stories end.
End with the end.
If the Japanese people want to believe.
Want to believe this is the end.
The beginning of the end.
They have every reason.
For now, we have no way to understand.
To understand what has happened.
Or why.
Again.
1 comment:
It just looks like some Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwartznegger movie where the hero walks away at the end and behind him is mass destruction only this time there is no curtain to close, lights to come on and people left to walk to their cars and drive home. This is real and like you said - getting worse and worse by the second. The Japanese people are some of the most resilient out there but this has to be more than even THEY expected. Godzilla did far less damage than this
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