Every so often, we are abruptly reminded, that life is a fleeting experience.
While at work yesterday I took my daily passing glance at one of the many high definition televisions that decorate the workplace. Usually the monitor is adorned with bombastic talking heads of a particular political bent, so I tend to look for other stimulus to engage my senses on after the initial glimpse of the screen.
Yesterday was different.
The Breaking news signature at the bottom to the screen was typical in nature but the imagery that accompanied it was far more disturbing than normal.
From what I could glean there seemed to be a train accident with one of the cars settled completely on top of another. It took a few seconds to register that they were local D.C “Metro” trains and millisecond to personally notify my being that I used to ride the particular line involved on a daily basis.
After making the requisite phone calls and e-mail ensuring everyone personally known was okay and ensuring others of my safety, I began to embark on a full night of watching disaster coverage which lead to conflicting feelings. While their craft is indispensable, I was disturbed by the reports seemingly feigned compassion for the victims of the crash, and incessant focus on death toll numbers. No matter ones profession, eventually everyone becomes desensitized by their work , the expression of that truism seemed more callous then ordinary yesterday though.
I had to question myself while in the midst of angry criticism however. Why such concern on my part personally? Had I not been the same person who conjured up thoughts internally about tv shows and movies during a recent horrific tragedy?
We all must compartmentalize, and callous as it sounds, disregard death in order to function. In the few instances we allow ourselves to become overwhelmed with empathy, sadness and anger, our understandable feelings sadly usually an adverse effect on ourselves as well as those around us.
So what is there to do? Personally I’ve decided to take the opportunity to invest one of the many time tested adages in concerning life.
Tomorrow is not promised
Random ILL 