Tsunami

[Doreen Peri]

22,000 people are dead ....

film at 11

what a sight!

i can't believe it.

Life has become a disaster movie.

I felt guilty celebrating Christmas thinking of Fallujah.... they are only letting male heads of household back in. They are searching them, fingerprinting them, treating them like criminals, and when they get back to their homes, what do they find? Nothing but destruction.

Citizens are being killed right and left.

America plays the God of Wrath and wonders why the world is filled with hatred.

And the real God says, "Take this. Let me show you who's truly in power." Tsunami. 22,000+ wiped out in moments.

No, if there is a God, he wouldn't have done that.

He wouldn't destroy like humans destroy.

We are living in a disaster movie.

I'm going to do something novel.

I'm going to go read a book.

Pure escape.

I will feel even more guilty when I'm finished.

We may not be able to stop earthquakes and tidal waves, but we sure as hell can stop killing people by our own hands.

I feel nauseous.

I never was much of a fan of disaster flicks or war movies.

Give me a good murder mystery any day. At least only one person has died.

[judih]

my head and body were rolling today in excessive energy - a lot of people around here felt extreme exhaustion.

the idea - one minute sunning yourself, the next being a helpless speck underneath a towering ocean - is heavy stuff.

[perezoso]

aye, it's a horrible tragedy, except for the pics of those sexay bengali ladies in their saris.....

and sexay too to hear Ms Peri wax poetic.....after yr current....uh....beau....is vamanosed.....well.... doreen...u got my email addy

hi dear mizz j.

[hester_prynne]

Hey Doreen, I hear you.
Christmas this year has been the hardest to go through for me.
can't get into it.
can't understand how folks even can.
Merton's "no man is an island" fell off the bookshelf on christmas eve and I've been reading it ever since.
It helps.
Knowing there are people like you in this world helps too....

H

[minfin]

been happenihg
'round
here
the other night
with
a tremor felt
must of been mine subsidence.
i don't live in earthquake country
the basalmic vinager hit the floor
turned to wine
ignored by kitties and man alike
tiny earthquake
tinier earhtquakes
hollow world
spinning now
a little bit less.

[Doreen Peri]

What's the death toll now? 150,000? More?

I spent a good part of the day watching the news and listening to the stories of survivors.

I don't have a can of Italian tomatoes to prepare my traditional New Years Day black eyed peas with onions and celery and garlic. Ten minutes ago, I was complaining that I had to go to the store.

I'm ashamed of myself.

I have been on the verge of tears since I heard the news of this disaster. Last night, at midnight, I was feeling sorry for myself because I spent much of the evening alone.

I'm ashamed of myself.

At two AM I was crying like a baby. Why? Because I am in turmoil with the world.

I'm ashamed of myself.

The woman on the screen lost 3 children and a husband. Gone. A wall of water hit and swept them away with the debris.

An elderly woman was caught on a balcony, her legs were wrapped around the posts. Water was rushing on top of her. Only her face was above water, being bombarded by floating debris. Bodies. She got pulled out by 4 men who had to push the debris and bodies aside to get to her.

I don't have a can of Italian tomatoes for my black-eyed peas. I got irritated that I have to drive to the store for one darn can of tomatoes. I wanted to stay home today and not go out.

I'm ashamed of myself.

I spent New Years Eve drinking and crying.

Why?

I am in turmoil with the world.

How many have died in Iraq in 2004?

Parts of me have died with them all.

I have been hit by the tsunami and my insides are being pulled out to sea. I am ashamed of myself.

There is nothing to do but to cry.

And drive to the store.

New Years Day dinner is not complete without black-eyed peas simmered in garlic, onion, celery and Italian tomatoes.

I'm going to make mashed potatoes with butter and fresh spinach and a spiral-sliced ham.

We'll light a fire in the fireplace in the dining room and dine by candlelight.

The weather today is extraordinary for a January 1st in Virginia. It's 60 degrees. The crocuses think it's spring. I see them trying to pierce through the ground.

What's the death toll today? 150,000? More?

A woman lost her 3 children and husband within minutes.

I don't have a can of Italian tomatoes. I have to go to the store.

I'm ashamed of myself.

[Doreen Peri]

I can't sleep.

It's after 1AM and I'm exhausted. I lie down and close my eyes and all I see are images of the tsunami victims and their families .... the disaster has taken me over.

I am awake living in the nightmare in my head.

How do people deal with this type of thing?

Is anybody else out there devastated like this?

I weep. I shake.

I feel guilty for drinking clean water because the survivors need it.

I feel guilty for laughing when something's funny.

I have major insomnia and I don't know what to do about it.

How do you deal with this?

Any advice would help.

I feel overwhelmed with images and thoughts of tragedy and annihilation.

[knip]

not to be cold, but tragedy happens daily on this globe...should you be kept awake because it is 150,000 people? what if it is 100,000? or 50,000? or 1000? or 1?

what number makes it insomnia-worthy?

tragedy is life...life is tragedy...it happens, and is horrible, but it will happen again

i've been to some of those places...i recognize the line of palm trees in phuket...i sunned under those palms...chatted with trannies there...bought cheap trinkets off kids...i walked the streets, took all my meals on the seaside boulevard...drank and danced all night in the pubs there...they are all gone now...although i suspect the trannies will be back out soon, if not there already...they're a resilient bunch...

huge tragedy yes...unpredicted no...it'll happen again

[judih]

yes, they're back already. Word from mouth to mouth is the day after the disaster, tourists were out drinking beer and doing what tourists do in cafes that catered to business.

resilient is right, knip

[knip]

yeah i heard that

still trying to decide if that is good or bad

i think more bad than good

[Doreen Peri]

I find it hard to believe that it would be anything close to partying as usual.

If taverns were not damaged and stayed open right afterward, I think it might be sort of natural for survivors to want to meet with each other at a public, get drunk together, and cry ...

[knip]

i would find it kind of distasteful if westerners were partying as usual after such a disaster...on the other hand, it is how most locals manage to eat and buy shelter in many parts of the world...us westerners do enough damage through kindness without stopping tourism out of some 'noble' gesture

[stilltrucking]

i would find it kind of distasteful

NOA bureaucrats when asked why they screwed up the warning that could have saved most of those lives:

We did not have their phone numbers, and besides that we did not have enough phones to call everyone.

[hester_prynne]

Yes, it's true that things like this happen.
However, I too, have been intensely affected by this incredible event.
I feel the surprize, pain and heavy sorrow that these hundreds of thousands of people are feeling. I feel the guilt of those that made it. I wonder why there, and not here? They are us, you and me, just in a different location.

I have been unable to do anything but watch and read whatever I can about this tsunami. The rescue stories, the survivor stories, the lost and unfound, maybe never found. It's incredible. It's survival, it's meeting Mother Nature face to face.

During my New Years Eve gig, (which was really fun and went well,) I asked for a moment of silence for the tsunami victims, then I invited everyone to just sing along with me the whole night, as singing is good energy and healing as well. Believe me, everyone sang along most of the night.

I am also trying to organize a meeting between our local thrift store and red cross.....hopefully there will be alot of clothes and hard goods we can send out.

I really wish I could go there myself and help, offer my hands, my heart, listen to the stories, help hold the sorrows.

I wish that George Bush would take this as an opportunity to remove our troops from Iraq and transfer them to where the wave hit so they can help there. The war in iraq is made even more laughable by Mother Nature. He needs to do the right thing now. It's never too late......
But he won't . He's not that kind of opportunist. Shame on us for even having him as our leader and representative.....

If wishes were horses, we beggars would ride.

I've also stayed offline and out of chatrooms, for fear that too many would be doing the usual again.....shrugging their shoulders, or making a joke of it. I cannot handle that nicely. I think most of you here know that about me.

Doreen, I thank you for your posts. You give me hope that empathy is not totally extinct.

H

[Doreen Peri]

You and I are contemporaries, hest... we were born the same year... and I can't think of any natural disaster or any other tragedy which has happened in my lifetime which was this devastating. Can you? I've never known of so many lives being lost at once ....

And this is just the beginning. The death count is nowhere near finished. Then comes disease and who knows what other horrors after the fact, as a result of the disaster.

I can't imagine anyone making light of it as if things like this happen all the time. Things like this do NOT happen all the time. Tragedy happens on much smaller scales than this, yes, but nothing of this magnitude.

I wish I could go there and help, too.

And I was saying the exact same thing you said the other day... that now would be a perfect opportunity to pull the troops out of Iraq and use the manpower to do some good.

But you're right. It won't happen.

It is so sad.

I feel guilty for being here comfortable in my home.



-----

knip? How many deaths are worth insomnia?

I don't know. Maybe one. Yep.

That's quite possible.