Thoughts on Haiti

The earthquake in Haiti has resulted in a human toll hard to fathom. A million people displaced. Untold numbers dead.  I’ve been watching the events unfold on CNN and it just breaks your heart – the story of the little girl they finally pulled from the rubble, only to find out there isn’t medical care available to save her life was just one of tens of thousands of tragic stories happening as each hour passes.

It makes you feel a pretty ungrateful when you complain about the little annoyances of life.  At least we aren’t in the middle of this nightmare.

It also reminds us that we are part of a larger world.  To be truly unselfish and live complete lives we can’t live in our own little bubble and only concern ourselves with the few people we know and love.  Why?  Because the state of the world has an effect on us – whether we want to face it or not.  We certainly have seen this in our own country – how misery in other places can bring misery to us.   We are all tied together by the very nature of our world. We all share the same planet.  False divisions merely keep us from facing the fact that we are a small piece of an enormous community of billions.

When we were drinking we often thought we were the center of the universe. In sobriety, it’s important to truly embrace the fact that we are not.  By recognizing this truth we begin to be less selfless. By being less selfish we begin to think about how we impact others.  Thinking about how we impact our family, friends, neighbors, community, country, continent, and world dynamically changes how we live.  We naturally become more responsible and more responsive.  We begin to feel part of something bigger and greater than one person.  We become a true member of Planet Earth.