On Thursday evening Fred and I were in the car with some of the little boys. They were talking about the weather as there had been so much rain. They began asking about different kinds of storms among themselves wondering which was most severe. Tornadoes and Hurricanes were vying for position when Joseph piped up from the back:
"Dad, what's a tsunami?"
Fred began to explain how much worse a Tsunami was than a hurricane or tornado to the little boys. Naturally acts of God are difficult to detail, especially for children. They asked questions like "why can't the people just run away from the water like we run from the waves at the beach?"
He tried to explain how high those waves were using phrases like "two houses high" and how quick they come in "as fast as the car can drive".
Next they wanted to know what happened in heaven if a lot of people died all at once. Fred quickly explained to them in Calvin and Hobbes style that heaven looks like D.M.V. on a Friday afternoon and that St Michael and St Joseph have to take over traffic control for a while. "Scapulars to the right, rosary prayers to the left, please form a single line in front of the gates, have your baptismal certificate showing or you'll have to take a new number."
The kids all giggled as he explained.
Friday morning we woke to news of the Japanese Tsunami. Talk about surreal. Suddenly all those questions from the night before were dancing across the television screen with devastating clarity.We have been so saddened by the loss of life. I want to help, yet feel paralyzed at which way to turn. Each minute seems to bring further disastrous news that is just too big to get ones head around.
- First the 8.9 earthquake
- Next the Tsunami, a 23 foot wall of water.
- Then not one but two nuclear power plants in jeopardy
- which soon turned into 6 nuclear power plants in jeopardy
- And yesterday a volcano began erupting throwing ash into the atmosphere.
- One would almost believe it if we heard Godzilla had also been spotted in the ocean.
Fred cannot seem to pull himself away from the images that show how powerful the Tsunami was. Buildings crumbling, ships folding, cars floating like tinker toys. Me, I have a hard time watching the people wandering around looking for someone they might never find and wish desperately I could reach out and pull them into my safe warm home and offer them a plate of food and a warm drink. Last week I watched my yard almost swallow Sarah and it felt like the earth rocked beneath my feet. Days later the earth did rock beneath Japan's feet, and swallowed up entire villages of little Sarah's forever.
I do not know what the correct response is to all this disaster. Perhaps I would feel better if I could do something- anything in the face of such tragedy. And yes there are little things we can do- financial support, prayers for certain,using the gifts and resources we have each been given until more concrete aid can be ascertained. In the meantime I can offer them my thoughts and my heart.I can allow this to impact me because it matters. These people matter. My life should be changed by such a tremendous loss. Godzilla would make it much easier wouldn't it? It would allow us to wipe it all away as if it were just a movie image on a screen, instead of grappling with the difficult questions we encounter at such an enormous devastation; like how are we to help those desperate people in Japan whom we share the world with?
I hear you Ellie. Try explaining it to 25 3yr olds all at the same time. Each day we go to the chapel in the school and pray a decade of the rosary for the people in Japan. I keep explaining to them that we can't travel to Japan fast enough because it's too far away, but when Mary came to us so many times... she came to children. Because she believes they are SO powerful. I urge each one of them to pray from their hearts and pray hard for the people who are suffering in Japan. Then Jesus' heart is touched and he pours out special "gifts" graces on the people in Japan to help them since we cannot go to them. I try to impress on them how much they'd want someone to pray & do something if it was THIER Daddy or Mommy or Sister or Brother suffering... We have to pray like it IS their Daddy or their sister or brother in Japan. You should hear all their little voices praying SO hard. It's a beautiful thing... but true that I still feel helpless & wish I could offer more.
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