It was a typical Friday night as I was tinkering around on Twitter while my son slept peacefully. It was getting late and I was ready to head off to the land of make believe when I saw the tweets starting to come in. An earthquake in Japan. The tweets started to roll as each minute went by but it was getting so late and I was fading fast. I do not recall what caught my eye, but I got up, found the clicker and put on the tv as I was curious. There was live coverage of an earthquake? Seemed strange. I then witnessed one of the most horrifying events I had ever seen. I watched the aerial live coverage of the tsunami unfolding. As I watched I was frozen as I knew that there would be thousands of fatalities as water of that magnitude takes everything in its path.
I have had a house fire, watched a tree fall in my house during hurricane David, saw a tornado whiz past my office, been in way too many blizzards, rolled off my bed in a small earthquake in Vegas (I used to sleep on the edge with my foot hanging off, now, I curl up in the middle), saw a pick up truck go over a guard rail and plunge 8 feet and land roughly 10-20 feet away from my Miata, and lastly flash flooding that necessitated air lifting rescues and that moved a fire truck down the street as if was a piece of paper but, none of those events that I have been in or witnessed compared to what I was seeing that evening. I remember being woken up at 5ish am on 9/11 by one of my friends in NJ with such a shrill in their voice that when I put the tv on and saw the 2nd plane go into the Tower, I screamed NO!!!!!!!! and fell on my knees. That same horror engulfed me. I felt helpless. I was so worried about the men and women trapped on the airport control tower. I wanted to rescue them.
Care4Japan
We lived through the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and of course while still, even 10 years later difficult to talk about, 9/11. We know what we felt and how we wanted to do something. The people in Japan are deprived of housing, food and water. We can help. They may live so far away but our compassion for people and their struggles to have water, a bathroom, a shower and clean clothes, things we never think about has to resonate. We complain when we have a power outage for a few hours, we complain when our hot water heater goes in the fritz, and we complain when Facebook is down. Imagine having no idea when you will have plentiful drinking water, when power will be restored, when you will be able to take a shower or a flushing toilet, a washing machine and dryer or more clothes than what is on your back.
If you can for one minute think about being stripped of all that you knew, losing family members, losing your home, your memories in photos, having nothing more than the clothes on your back and having no idea when you will have the simple things we take for granted, like walking into the bathroom and having a bar of soap, a toothbrush, a hair brush. Walking into a bedroom with a bed, a light switch, an alarm clock. Look at all you have and while sometimes it does not seem like much, it is so much more than thousands of people in Japan have.
How You Can Make A Difference
You can make a difference by taking a moment when you go to buy that $4 coffee and think of how you got there, where you came from, the clothes you have on. Suddenly it becomes clear, that java is something you “need” but yet in the grand scheme of it all, you really do not. You can make a pot at home or at the office (ok so it may be nasty but it gives you a taste for not having).
You can make a difference in giving. Over the next week (from April 2nd to the 9th) there is an opportunity to give but yet at the same time connect to others on Facebook and Twitter. The commonality of being a part of something matters. In social media, we always hear and say “I do not know what to say” or “no-one responds to me” well you have something to talk about and get others involved. on Facebook or care4jpapan.org – and give and then get involved of the week long twitter chat with #care4japan.
This is my plea from having nothing more than the clothes on my back so I know, but I had families that cared, let’s be that family that cares.
