Half a world away from Katrina

And so, just as I had been talking about the thin veil of civilization... wow. It's sobering to realize how one rush of wind and water can overturn the foundation of the world for thousands of families. Following the hurricane disaster news from here evokes the same emotions that I felt while following the 9/11 news from my old high school in Japan four years ago. The same sort of detached disbelief and struggle to gauge the sheer size of the event compared with, say, the big earthquakes a few years back in India or Iran, or with the war in Iraq, or the 1918 flu epidemic that killed 20 million people. All of these things are on such a huge scale compared with most of the things I think about in my daily life - do I need to buy bread tonight, do I have my train card with me, where did I put my watch, which shirt should I wear today? And then something like this blows away my sense of scale. It's kind of an irrational feeling, but I feel like I should be home taking care of my country or something. Not that I would be involved in the relief effort if I were back in the States (although a part of me has always wanted to do that sort of work). It's just a sort of general feeling of irresponsibility - what am I doing enjoying myself in Japan when something like this is going on back in the US?