The sensitivity of life (01/14/2010)

I am at a loss, with how so many lives could be taken away – and in the immediacy they can be taken – with the shifting of plates, manifesting in unaccountable destruction. And, the irony, of how more tragedy can strike already the most vulnerable and suffering. A journalist (Rocio Silva Santisteban) in Trujillo reemphasized the cliché of how conditions can always get worse – “es nuestro premio consuelo cada vez que nos encontramos en el penúltimo lugar de alguna citación terrible: ellos siempre estarán peor.” You think things couldn’t get worse, shouldn’t get worse, that plaguing a people couldn’t possibly happen even more, but that unfortunately isn’t the case. And to those who were working toward the betterment of those circumstances – also being lost in this earthquake. My prayers, thoughts, and efforts in the work I am pursuing are dedicated to those lost on both sides – some names of individuals: Molly Hightower, who was working with Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, and Brenden Beck, working with USAID.