gordonzola

My writing, here and elsewhere, is never very good with the here and now. I’m not a journalist, even if this is a journal, and I like to wait awhile before writing about things whether it’s my walk home from work or Hurricane Katrina.

There is so much sadness, pain, anger, blame, and noise on my friendslist and I don’t feel the need to add to it. Watching the footage of the survivors is traumatizing. Certainly not in the way that the survivors are traumatized, I mean duh, but it is very intense. The 1989 earthquake here gave me a tiny glimpse into what a huge disaster feels like, but the tremendous scale of this turns that into empathy, not understanding. After all, I just had a slightly cracked apartment to return to and my loved ones were safe, not swept away or dead at my feet.

But I just needed to poke up my head and say I’m here. That I’m feeling those things too. In this kind of new community, it feels important not to just disappear in times of crisis, even if I have not much to add.

Most of the good links have been on multiple LJs so I won’t repost them. I will say I appreciate

nihilistic_kid’s ability to compose an eloquent analysis very quickly and this post should be read by everyone even though I’d hardly say it’s full of surprises. Also

purejuice set up