actually lost in translation...

i'm taking a break from studying and i sit down at my computer and open cnn.com (which is really my only link to american news...) and here is what i am greeted with:

Quake Toll Exceeds 30,000
Guatemala landslide areas delcared mass graves
Conservatives spar over high court nominee
Fire Destroys "Gromit" Warehouse
Coroner (in New Orleans): Many Bodies Will Never Be Identifed
Darfur Gunmen Kidnap 18, Release Some
Brooklyn girl, 9, admits to killing playmate
Initial tests indicate boy has bird flu
Jessica Biel named sexiest woman alive

ha.

as if there wasnt enough to worry about.... what is going on in the world? maybe it's because the news searches for the most terrifying dramatic stories and then exploits them to the max.. or maybe it's because this is my only little window into the world at home, but why does it feel like everything is falling apart?

I think about all the disaster on the front page and realize that there is still death and destruction being dealt with from last year's tsunami in india. four years later, there is still an empty void where the twin towers once sat... every day, every week there is something bigger and better to worry about, but the past emergencies dont just fade away.

the bombings in london. the ones in madrid. the recent ones in bali. the ones that happen every single day in the middle east. the turmoil in israel and the fact that last week in Rome, the city I am now calling my home, they acted out fake terrorist scenarios. they blew up plastic dumbies, representing suicide bombers, they lit cars on fire and they tried to figure out how they could possibly fit enough emergency equipment into the crowded, ancient streets of rome in order to deal with a potential casualty toll too high to even want to try and count...

i don't have conclusions now. only lists. only turmoil. only the fragments on the front page of cnn.com. and the knowledge that tomorrow there will be more. more death. more mortality. more ceretainly more confrontation with the elements, which each other and with the all-consuming fragility of life.

love, sweet love, lindsey