That cosmic hunger for human souls struck mercilessly yesterday in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, killing more than 20,000 and rising. It's been an unspeakably efficient 12-months for natural disaster in South Asia.
Standouts this time include several schools collapsing on hundreds of schoolchildren preparing for lives now pulverized by concrete and debris, their parents shattered with grief. Whole groups of soldiers, large and small, Pakistani and Indian, patrolling the mountains or guarding the border were wiped out. Favorite dishes, taken in big bites.
It's easy to get numb with international news being 24/7, and our being as pathetically helpless as we are against these forces. But when that beast bursts through the thin illusions that permit us to live our daily lives and grabs so many of us in its teeth, shredding and grinding us before we have time to cry out, the survivors must still look up and shake our fists. Go not gently, be angry, protest, never give in to the slaughter and injustice, whatever its source. It will be all too soon that we put this behind us and go back to our lives until the next time.
Bon appetit, Mr. Death.
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