Crazy World

Many thoughts have been swirling around in my head today as I have watched the news and read news reports on the internet.

While the situation in Haiti is unimaginable and horrific, there is part of me which is almost enjoying the reports, if not because of the catastrophic event or the monumental human tragedy which necessitated it, but because of the emphasis on a worldwide effort to help people in one of the poorest countries in the world. Everyone suddenly cares about the people of Haiti and everyone is flying in to help out.

The text messages to the cell phone number 90999 with the message "Haiti," each of which donated $10 to help, raised over $5 million dollars in a day alone. That's more than five hundred thousand people who each contributed $10 in one day to help the people of Haiti, and who knows how much has been donated by the dozens of help groups, religious and secular, that have said they are going to Haiti to bring relief.

These are people (myself included) who haven't done a heck of a lot to help the people of Haiti before yesterday. The United States, which is mobilizing its crisis teams and leading the relief effort would turn back a boatload of desperate refugees--men, women and children--who had braved the open ocean ocean in flimsy boats in order to achieve some sort of a better life in this country, because they were illegal aliens.

It's a crazy world.

But I can't help but think, over and over again, if countries of the world can work together so effectively to help people who are suffering the effects of a catastrophic attack of nature in lands far from their shores, why can't we mobilize to improve the plight of people everywhere instead of fighting each other?

As I write this, I am reminded of the World War II story of the hostilities which ceased on Christmas Eve while German and American soldiers slowly came together to share food, sing songs, and celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, then returned to their foxholes to shoot at each other the next day.

As I said, it's a crazy world.

This morning I read a horrific story of a dog who was abducted and then dragged to death in the snow behind a pickup truck, by a man who had threatened to kill the dog. The man was confused about why in the world he would be arrested. A petition was being circulated expressing our ire at the cruelty toward this poor animal. I signed, of course. But as I signed, it saddened me to know that some people, on most days, are more prone to leap to the defense of helpless animals than helpless people.

But not when natural disasters occurs. Natural disasters seem to bring out the best in most of us. Maybe natural disasters are God's way of reminding us of our responsibility to care for those less well off than we are. Maybe if we remembered that every day, not just in the wake of a disaster, He'd stop sending earthquakes and fires and floods.

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Spencer has turned out to be the best foster dog addition we've had. Not that he's the best dog in the world (though if I get to know him better, he might well be), but because he has caused a difference of night and day with Polly. Polly, who has been afraid of her shadow ever since Sheila scared her last week, the day before she had to go to the vet to be spayed, has suddenly become a playful little dog again. She looks happy. They don't play together a lot, though they do sometimes chase each other, but they both sleep in my lap and it seems that just having Spencer here has made the world OK for Polly again.

The two of them are so funny. They allow me to work at my desk for just so long and then one or the other of them starts whimpering. They want me to sit in my chair and let them cuddle. Polly settles in on one side, Spencer on the other, they east lay their heads across my chest and they lick each other. Very cute

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NOTE: I am going to Ventura tomorrow to be there for my friend Lynn's 60th birthday party on Saturday. Walt is staying home and dog-sitting. I will be back Sunday night (hopefully in time for the Golden Globes broadcast at 5:30 p.m.!) Anyway, I don't know when entries for the next 3 days will be published. Just a FYI.