Dianna Edwards and Writing
  • About me
  • Short stories
    • Death in the Desert
    • Secrets
    • Airport Drama
    • Acacia
    • Two Chooks in December
    • A Darned Surprise
    • The Sunset Mermaid
    • Friend or Foe?
    • At Rainbow's End
    • Sisterly Love
    • Good Times to Come
    • Being Famous
    • Something Special for Dinner
    • Walter's Secret
    • The Visitor
  • Children's stories
    • The Red Silk Kite
    • The Singing Tree
    • Beatrice Barnfeather
    • Garth's bath
    • Little Dog Tambo
    • Flowers For a Special Day
  • Non Fiction
    • Letter to a Soldier
    • The Body
    • Autumn Saturday
    • A Year With Billy
    • Lunch
    • Harry's Story
    • 2007 bushfires
    • My Father's Kite
    • Death of a Chook
    • Gentle Heartache
    • Shopping with Sisters
    • When I am Old
    • Matilda
    • Fragments
  • Blog

BLOG

Today's sad world

19/4/2013

0 Comments

 
Oh, the awfulness of what happened at the Boston Marathon and the continued awfulness of
the aftermath…and it continues.
And the explosion at a fertilizer factory in Texas. How did that happen? How come nearly everyone knows that modern fertilizers have an important component that is a deadly explosive and yet both a school and an elderly persons’ hostel were allowed to be built within spitting distance of this factory? How come the local firemen did not know that to add water to a fire containing this chemical would cause an explosion?
And how come we (and I’m in Australia) are mourning the dead and wounded from the Boston
Marathon episode and (now) the Texas factory fire and yet we have taken scant notice of the dreadful personal toll of this week’s earthquake in Iran & Pakistan, which killed at least 34 people - or the terrorist bombing of innocents in Pakistan, at an election campaign, where at least 8 people died and untold were injured. Is it that we don’t care?  That we think Pakistanis and Iranians
are lesser people?  No, I think it is because we see the tv ‘footage’ of what happens in USA and our media grab at all the scenes and eye-witness stories that they can and we, like ‘rubber-necked’ voyeurs at a road accident, can’t get enough of it.
But, perhaps I am being too cynical. 
In fact, how come people die when we are not expecting them to? And how do we cope?
Not so long ago, the American actor, Bradley Cooper, spoke of his father’s death (in 2011),“
My father – someone who had been in my life for 36 years – is just f---ing gone.” And then goes on to say, “Nothing has ever been the same since.”
Perhaps John Donne was on to something when he wrote (just before his famous words of not sending to know for whom the bell tolls… “
any man’s death diminishes me, because I am
involved in mankind…”

But here’s the last word on the subject- from William Blake’s
“Songs of Innocence”
 
“Can I see another's woe, 
 
And not be in sorrow too? 
 
Can I see another's grief, 
 
And not seek for kind relief? 
 
Can I see a falling tear, 
 
And not feel my sorrow's share?....” 
 
We cannot help but mourn as others mourn…..isn't that so? Is that perhaps what makes us human?

 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author notes

    I choose to comment on social issues and write creatively on a variety of subjects -  for a variety of audiences.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012

    Categories

    All
    Childhood
    House
    Kindness
    On Death
    Social Comment
    Writing

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • About me
  • Short stories
    • Death in the Desert
    • Secrets
    • Airport Drama
    • Acacia
    • Two Chooks in December
    • A Darned Surprise
    • The Sunset Mermaid
    • Friend or Foe?
    • At Rainbow's End
    • Sisterly Love
    • Good Times to Come
    • Being Famous
    • Something Special for Dinner
    • Walter's Secret
    • The Visitor
  • Children's stories
    • The Red Silk Kite
    • The Singing Tree
    • Beatrice Barnfeather
    • Garth's bath
    • Little Dog Tambo
    • Flowers For a Special Day
  • Non Fiction
    • Letter to a Soldier
    • The Body
    • Autumn Saturday
    • A Year With Billy
    • Lunch
    • Harry's Story
    • 2007 bushfires
    • My Father's Kite
    • Death of a Chook
    • Gentle Heartache
    • Shopping with Sisters
    • When I am Old
    • Matilda
    • Fragments
  • Blog