Uberpea has done a great job of putting together a list of organizations which are accepting aid for the tidal wave victems. Click here to access her site.

I'm glad to see the media give the tragedy the attention that it deserves, because, notwithstanding the shocking number of people who have died, the lives of countless numbers of people have changed forever, and anyone who doesn't think there's going to be socio/economic/political fall out from such a serious disaster cannot be paying much attention to the world news.

In my own faith tradition, I pray for the survivors that they might have spiritual comfort and practical support. I'm looking around to see if I can cut out any small luxuary to make a donation to relief efforts - even if it's only $5.00 it all adds up....

I guess I had a better sense of how high the death toll might climb when I read the first stories about the disaster. I have an absolute dread about flooding. For some reason I have recurring nightmares about a wall of water crashing in on me, a tsunami like wave. I dream that I am near some body of water, and I see the water all rush out and know what's coming ( after all, I've had this same stupid dream about 150 times) but can't move/can't get away fast enough/ no higher ground/quicksand....whatever. I know, intellectually, that I have that dream whenever things are "crashing in on me" in my life, like overdue bills, overdue paperwork, too many projects and not enough day.

But people are drawn to what scares them, and so I've read a ton of articles on tsunamis...how they happen, why they're deadly, etc. When I read that this earthquake had actually shaken the earths rotation on its axis - having followed an extensive chain of links to get to some actual, factual news ( so I can't quite remember where I read it....in case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly The Washington Post here) - my heart felt like it fell down to my feet.

I guess the other feeling that I have about a tragedy of this magnatude comes out of my "There but for the grace of God, go I" mentality. As The Hub put it, after hearing about the shuddering axis thing "Terra Firma my ass!" This is a dynamic planet. These things are gonna happen....but they're not always gonna happen to other people in other parts of the world where the infrastructure happens to be rather crappy to begin with. The whole "megapolis" of the east coast....from Washington through New York and out past Boston is sitting mightly close to a fault line. It hasn't done anything serious in anybody's memory, but it could shake and shimmy tomorrow.

When whe lived in Gardner, I was awakened one Saturday morning by what sounded like heavy equipment out front...and the house shook. "What was IN that margarita I had last night?" I asked myself, "If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that was an earthquake tremor". Well it was. And the toilet never sat right after that either. And that was NOTHING, but it certainly gave me a turn.

I just don't think that a cynical, jaded attitude is appropriate in the face of a tragedy of such magnitude. I know that there is a limit to what we can do here while we maintain our daily lives. The American people ARE generous. We are a caring, compassionate people....those of us who feel awed, saddened, deep sympathy for those who have lost loved ones shouldn't have to keep these feelings under out hats. There's nothing wrong with it if you don't feel like going shopping ( like Devilcat didn't feel like going shopping), if you feel like giving your Christmas money to the Red Cross, or putting it in the poor box. No one should chide us about it, make us feel bad, like we are naive or stupid because we want to make a difference. Maybe we can, maybe we can't, but we certainly can't if we don't try. Is it gonna change the world if you forgo your Starbucks coffee one morning and throw the $3.50 in a donation box somewhere? Well, no. But if everybody in America did that it might start to add up.

We the "feelers" the "sensative people" are not a minority. We may not be hip, we may not be glib, we may keep our bleeding hearts to ourselves....but I think MOST Americans are like us at heart. Sex and violence sell, though. Aid is expected, but looting is news. There will be stories of love, compassion, Christian ( and probably Muslim and Buddhist) Charity out of all of this that will never be told....but every evil act, every tin hat dictator that gets his hands on the aid money, every scandel within every charity....all that will get told ad infinitum, until the whole world is dead at heart and we become convinced we can't make a difference. That is unless we stand up, and say how we feel, what we mean to do, how we plan to not give up on our fellow human beings.

I got $6.40 in a coffee can just sitting around not doing much. The Salvation Army, Worldwide can have that. How about you?