The Novel Road: Reach out to Japan

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Reach out to Japan

Oh my God, how wide is the world...

Don’t think of miles, think of people when you consider it’s breadth. If you do, you will see that this is not just our world, but our private universe. Think as we may, when looking at a star filled sky and dream of what may lay beyond, we all look from here. One vantage, from a point in space like no other that we hold in common.

The sky above may hold different celestial bodies if I look up from the high plains of America, than say, if I were in Indonesia. But that really doesn’t change the fact that stars above are what we all have in common.
When my gaze or yours returns to what is our lives, I don’t dread the horizon before me and neither should you. We are here together. We see what we will see and do what we will do. Live – die, laugh – lament, feel our strengths and weaknesses, but make no mistake, we do all this together.

Horrors come to us, and we overcome them. Some contribute their sinew to the effort of recovering from what happens, others their intellect or treasure. No matter what, we must always hold to a collective response to what befalls anyone in this world as what is right, placing ethnicity, politics and geography aside.

I love our world, especially when we rise to overcome. Look at what happened after the Indonesian tsunami. America didn’t hesitate to pour in help to the world’s largest Muslim country (foregoing our tendency to clump all Islam into terror) to help. Every country in the world offered help, if not materially, then through prayers for people we all do not personally know. Prayers spoken in every religion.

Today we rise to help Japan as the horror of the past few days events unfold. Like the stars, we look at this as one and will not rest until we see this disaster’s end.

Here are some places you can go to help. These names will change as our lives move on to the next and next challenge. These names may hold the name of a country you live in next. I’m reminded that every religion in the world hold certain thoughts in common. The one that comes to mind is: “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you…”