Sadness in the midst

I am saddened and somehow slowed down by the events in the Gulf. Hurricane winds and rains have ravaged this country and my daily life now doesn't seem to matter. The things I worry about and the things that I seem to hold dear, no longer count when placed alongside the sufferings of others. My life is so trivial. I watch mothers hold hungry babies and wonder why I worry about what to make for dinner. I watch old women die in wheelchairs and think, there is my mother but for the Grace of my God.

What saddens me most is the idea that in this great United States, these things shouldn't happen. As though we were somehow immune to tragedy and suffering. That is a lot of uptight, proud thinking and so wrong. We are no more human than others and no more important that the victims of any civil war, any natural disaster or any tragedy in any other part of the world. But our arrogance goes before us and says "Why me?"