Shocking Things

Shocking things happen all the time. I always hear stories in the news about bad things happening to this person or that family and it always seems like that situation is an outlier, it is outside the ordinary, something that happens to some person somewhere, but not that sort of thing that actually happens to people. Does that make sense?

Lets try explaining it a different way. Whenever there were bad storms with big gusts of wind leading to tornadoes and what not, while I would be worried, there would always be that voice in the back of your head saying "I don't need to be worried, nothing bad will ever happen to me. Bad stuff happens to other people" It sometimes can be as if those other people don't exist, that their stories are imaginary or untouchable.

One of the first times I was confronted with how wrong this theory is and how real these stories are is when the earthquake happened. For maybe the first time in my life, I was a part of the imaginary, untouchable story. One of those crazy life events that you think just happens to other people happened to me.

Shocking things happen everyday. You hear about people dying of hunger, going homeless, being raped, abducted, etc. I hear these stories from the news and non-profits but for many of us I don't know if these stories really sink if. If we actually absorb the reality of the situation. If when you hear that Little Jenny was trafficked...I don't think the reality of what that means for her family, friends, and little Jenny is absorbed. Its accepted as something almost imaginary and untouchable...an awful story but not something that would ever happen to us or someone we know.

I had a busy day today. Lived my life like normal, went to a diocesan convention, did my own thing. There was nothing about today that would suggest anything shocking. Unfortunately shocking, horrible things happen everyday. I just randomly called a friend of mine in Haiti and was shocked by the story they told me. I'm not going to get into the details of what happened just trust me when I say its shocking, awful and unacceptable that these things can happen. Its a story that one day might be included in a statistic, but its not an imaginary or untouchable person. Its someone I know. In an instant I was ripped out of my reality and pulled into what is everyday reality for people in Haiti or Sudan, Uganda, Southeast Asia etc.

Maybe in the past I have always separated those stories in the news about awful things that happen to good people. Maybe I disconnected them from my life because the pain of accepting it is just too great. The sadness and disgust of connecting the shocking event to just one person is too painful, that to connect the story to the millions of other people shocking things happen to is just beyond painful. A pain that we aren't equipped to handle, but a pain, that if all of us could truly comprehend, might just save the world.

How could we turn our faces away when we here stats on poverty, HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, rape, abductions, malaria, refugees, etc if we could truly understand the pain and sorrow experienced by themselves, their family and friends. We couldn't. If we really felt that pain, then I don't think their would be discussions about cutting funding to USAID or ignoring oppressive or ineffective governments.

Anyway - shocking things happen to real people, in real places. Unimaginable and horrible things. I am sad for my friend. I am sad for Haiti. And I hope their pain stops soon. I also hope that I don't forget this feeling anytime soon. I hope it continues to motivate me. I hope that the next time I hear a statistic I take a moment to think about what the number really means to the millions of people who are affected by it. That I don't disconnect their tragedies from my life but that connect myself to their story and do my part to help.

I hope this entry made some sense. I'm still shocked and saddened by the news from my friend and wrote this entry as a way to process my thoughts a bit.