No Rest For The Weary

Last week I wrote about reality and how I have to face that bad things will happen. The next day Japan got hit with the massive earthquake and tsunami. That wasn't quite on the scale I was thinking of when preparing myself mentally for s*%t to go down. I am not even going to try and sit here and write an entry on how anything in my life ties in to the magnitude of an earthquake. I can't even begin to imagine the emotional pain people are going through over there right now. I am grateful to be safe right now and beyond that I can only hope it doesn't get worse for them before it gets better (although with the scare of nuclear leaks, I don't know how realistic that is).

It feels like the last few years so many natural disasters have occurred. It was terrifying but since having a child it really goes to a whole other level. A few days after our daughter was born there was an earthquake here. Los Angeles has them all the time but for some reason I have never really felt one before. This one I felt though. She was sleeping in her bassinet and I was in the kitchen. At the time there were workers on the street and I thought a big truck had gone by and rattled the house. I can be a little slow on the uptake sometimes. My husband screams out "Earthquake! Where's the baby? Where's the baby?" She was no joke right next to him but he was so freaked out he didn't notice her big white lacy bassinet right there. At first I thought it was all kind of funny and then my stomach sank. An earthquake?! I brought this innocent little thing here and now it's shaking. Suddenly, what I can and can't control got me very upset. There is nothing we can do about things like this happening. We can be prepared, but only so much.

I hate to be judgmental but I am going to anyway. I read something last week that a woman was trying to calm herself out of a post-baby dressing room meltdown by putting it in perspective with the news from Japan. There are so many things wrong with this -- where do I even begin? You have just had a healthy baby, you are shopping, thinking about how awful you feel about yourself but at least you aren't in Japan. If she wasn't so shallow she would be out buying a gas mask instead of something from the latest spring line. At least don't admit thoughts like this out loud.

Each day that goes on there seems to be more and more risk for the people in Japan. It is now recommended that people cancel any trips to anywhere in Japan. The threat of cancer seems to be going up every day. I ignorantly follow whatever news leans in favor of saying the risk is unlikely to affect us all the way over here. I can't be selfishly stupid anymore though. It's not about just me. A few years ago there was a commercial for protecting the environment. It had a man with a train coming towards him and then somehow it implied that by the time it hit he would be gone anyway so he didn't care. Then he was replaced by a child and the voice over said something about not leaving it a mess for your children. It popped into my head after last weeks news. What is this world even going to look like when she is my age?