Seeing but not believing

            “It looked like an old Godzilla movie.”  My Ex-wife had hit it right on the head.  We were discussing scenes of the devastating Japanese tsunami sweeping away cars and trucks and boats and houses and they all looked like toys strewn around the floor of a child’s room.  We shuddered as we thought of how those cars and trucks and boats and houses and even children could have been ours.  It is said that seeing is believing but although we saw what was happening we really couldn’t believe it, we couldn’t fathom what was occurring.  And now there are millions, millions of Japanese people without food, water, electricity, roofs over their heads. Unbelievable became the word of that day and the days that have followed.

            So many disasters around the world have strained our ability to focus.  The devastating earthquake that hit Haiti a little over a year ago.  Was it just a year ago?  Seems like it happened longer ago than that. The massive earthquake that struck Chile.  The torrent of mudslides, floods, tornadoes, blizzards and more that hit various parts of the United States.  And those were just natural disasters that strained our minds. Middle East revolutions with protestors gunned down in the streets while diplomats debated courses of action while taking none, Somali pirates murdering hostages, suicide bombers in Afghanistan and Iraq, rampant rape and murder throughout Africa.  Unbelievable.

            I have tried in earnest to imagine what the Japanese people are going through, so many having had everything washed away. It happened when a huge tsunami struck Indonesia some years ago and now it’s happened again in Japan. I used to believe that I possessed a vivid imagination but I find I cannot imagine what it must be like. The only country to have had atomic bombs dropped on it now faces peril from damaged nuclear plants spewing radiation.  It sounds puny to say but it is all just unbelievable.