Silver Spoon

My recent blips have been a break from my usual glib cynical attempts at humour. I'm sure you will understand why my head is firmly up a certain orifice at the moment.

Today I find myself in a luxury resort on the gorgeous island of Okinawa, physically about 2000km away, and in every other sense about a million miles away from the disaster area at the other end of this country.

I've been struggling with whether or not it is appropriate to come here . The fact that I'm here doesn't really mean I've reconciled myself with it. One perspective is that we should all stop doing anything fun while other people are suffering. Another is that that action will not actually help the victims in any practical way.
With respect to this trip, I'm pretty sure if we were at the planning stages, and nothing had been paid for, we would have canceled it and given the money to the relief effort instead.

But it was all paid for and nothing was coming back if we canceled it. So we elected to come. Call me selfish if you will, but in my own small incomparable scheme of things, I really needed a break even before this happened. So on that level I am glad I am here.
There is also something to he said for the argument that we in the west of Japan should make a concerted effort on behalf of the east to try and stop the Japanese economy from collapsing completely.

Some will no doubt accuse that this is just a melodramatic attempt to assuage my guilt at my own self indulgence. Hmmmm. Yup, I admit it that it is also that. I feel guilt. Which is weird really, because I haven't really done anything wrong, have I? Or have I? I wish it would go away.

What is true is that if sitting here in luxury spewing forth on the Internet was ALL I was going to contribute to the relief effort, that would be offensive. Given that that is not the case, and that no-one is forced to look at this, I hope you few that end up here will forgive me my own particular way of dealing with the horror I feel. This is my catharsis. I don't write it to invite approval or forgiveness. It is just the conversation I'm having with myself.

We are so blessed to have the opportunity to be here. I feel that (and it's all relative) my daughter was born with the silver spoon you see in my blip in her mouth. Should we feel guiltier this week for doing something we would have not been judged badly for doing 2 weeks ago, even though there were undoubtedly people suffering in the world then too? Probably not?....

Or is the big question: should we really have felt just as guilty then, and not only now when the suffering is closer to home?

I fear the answer is yes.

This tragedy has made me think a lot about a lot this week. There are many valid points of view. We have seen some of the best and the worst of the human condition this week.

It's a choice. I choose to focus on the good. People are coming out in their thousands to try to do something to help complete strangers in myriads of ways. Messes have been made, but I choose to encourage learning from the nature of the mistakes in order to affect positive change, rather than pointing the finger of blame at whoever may have been responsible. In the end, as in all disasters, everyone who did nothing to prevent the mistakes is as guilty as the people who were the agents.

Unless we are seriously saying that anyone actually wished for people to come to harm.

"If only BLANK had acted differently, things wouldn't have been so bad. " For BLANK, fill in the people of your choice: the government, TEPCO, the people who designed the reactors, the people who chose where to put them, the architects of the relief effort, etc etc etc. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

This was first and foremost an unforeseeable and tragic act of nature.

Learn and move on. We are all hurting.

Help the victims in whatever way is in your power, from donating ¥100, to organizing an event, to giving a hug, to going up there and volunteering. Anyone who enters into berating people about what is wrong with the way they help is despicable. As long as you do not continue to do something which has been proven to make things worse, whatever you do is positive.
More mistakes will doubtless be made. We are human, but we do what we can, and if happens to make you feel better about yourself at the same time, then in my book there's no shame in that.

On a lighter note, I haven't had a boiled egg in an egg cup for years! No soldiers though.