The earthquake and tsunami in Japan reminds me how fragile life is and how quickly it can be snuffed out. Daily, there are stories in the news about murders, fatal accidents of all kinds including floods and tornados, but they seem more manageable when it's one here and there, or maybe a few at a time, with or without pictures. But to sit and watch the tsunami roll across Sendai and realize the magnitude of the disaster unfolding is horrific. There were people in those cars, vans, buses, trains, houses, and boats. Visceral. Haunting.
It brings back memories of 911. The helpless horror of watching the towers fall with all those people in them. I sat and sobbed.
And it's real. I suspect we get numbed by the sheer amount of exposure to death as news, entertainment, or spectacle. It's usually staged or after the fact. I remember when I was in high school, graphic pictures in the newpaper or on tv was condemned as rank sensationalism and in extremely poor taste. Viet Nam news coverage with bloody gore served up at dinner with the evening news changed all of that.
When I reread passages from books like The Power of Now by Eckert Tolle, I am reminded that attachment is the root of suffering. That includes attachment to people, things and to the pain of losing them. To feel it and let it go helps transcend suffering. So very contrary to the general approach to life most of us hold in this culture and probably most societies. People who don't form attachments are considered sociopaths. Or enlightened masters. Is the difference the capacity to feel compassion?
Breathe.
I bought an older house with a large backyard graced by large trees and some cottage style flowerbeds I've put in and I'm really attached to it. If it were destroyed, could I feel the pain and just let it go? Questionable. When my home burned in 1999 and my mother died two days later of cancer, it took me several years to move past it. I suffered. We do get attached in life. Is that good or is it bad? Or neither.
What do you think? Believe?
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