Tragedy anniversaries are heavy

Today, as I look down my RSS blog feed, I see, "Six months on" and "10 years on". Eerily the two anniversaries coincide. Six months since the giant earthquake that triggered a monster tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan. Ten years since the disastrous plane hijacks and deliberate crashes in the US.

Can I add another? Yesterday it was nine months since the flash flood in my hometown and  nine months ago today the Brisbane river began to breech its banks in a sizeable flood.

And another? One week ago a downgraded typhoon was hanging over a portion of Japan, dousing it with well over a metre of rain. Again, lives, property and livelihoods have been lost.

It's been a shocking year. I wish I could write something profound, but I cannot. The loss of life, property, livelihoods, and even the loss of everything except ones own person are tremendous. It is hard to fathom. It is heavy to write about.

Yes, these are but a small handful of tragedies that happen every year. Mostly our news gets filtered to local or sensational concerns. But there are people dying in tragedies every day. Some days less, some days more. Some tragedies attract more media notice than others. Tragedies that affect more affluent countries, for example, attract more press, I think I'm safe to say. Tragedies that happen to famous people and places attract more attention.

If you've been to a place where a tragedy occurs, it hits you harder. If you know someone who's been directly affected by the tragedy, it hits you harder. In March people who had previously never appeared to cared a whit about Japan were suddenly contacting us and our family to enquire about our well-being. Humans are strange creatures.

It is equally hard to fathom that all these tragedies and yet we ourselves are physically untouched. I cannot say we are mentally untouched. It is hard to say how we've been changed, affected or what lingers after seeing these events take place. 

I do think I am somewhat effected by something like compassion fatigue. I found it difficult to take a look at the story about the typhoon last week. I feel a little overwhelmed by disaster stories.

I wondered at the time why I was so lacking in "fun" when we visited Tokyo Disney in July. I wonder if it was a part of this fatigue. As I look back I wonder if it was a feeling that with so many disaster and people suffering out there, why should I be wasting all this money and having a good time in this place. It was a weird day that I didn't particularly enjoy and that I felt guilty about being a part of (even though it was a gift from generous friends).

Well, I've raved on and on. It is hard to gather thoughts on such a day. The weather is even heavy. The humidity in the 80s, the thermometer over 30 and the clouds have hung ominously all day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.