Microwave on High

Thanks to the efforts of a small but vocal minority, we have the ability to cast stones at glass houses with impugnity and apparently get away with it. The debris is still settling and falling from the bridge disaster in Minnesota and already the cries of 'foul' are echoing through the streets of the city.

It isn't enough that a Presidential visit and assurances of aid were offered. It isn't enough that money will be expended to repair and make passable again. It isn't enough that sorrow was expressed for lives lost and property damaged. What is wanted is a microwave solution to a decades old problem.

Wouldn't it be nice if all human suffering was reduced to the time required to heat up a plate of leftovers in the microwave?

Within 5 minutes there would be no abandoned children or hungry orphans seeking a roof over their heads and a meal in their belly. At the lightening speed of making popcorn we could end all wars and greed could be totally eliminated from our vocabulary (as soon as someone determines a fair standard while the soup heats up). Infrastructure would be replaced between red lights and sorrow would be a word in an ancient text.

But I do not believe that would serve to make us better people.

I truly grieve for those who have lost loved ones in tragedy of epic or private proportion. I cry for those who remain displaced and adrift since the violence of Katrina turned New Orleans from a tourism hub to a filthy bathtub full of crime and decaying ruins.

What I can't understand is the belief that not enough is being done that has become part of our collective experience.

People were on their way to help the suffering before the dust settled from the bridge collapse. Food and water headed to New Orleans along with people to aid in the recovery. But the plain truth is in both cases that whining started before the wind and rain died down and before the last piece of bridge rubble fell into the Mississippi.

There is not a speed at which human effort can match undiluted human want. Regardless of circumstances that may be suffered by the unfortunate, the fact remains that adding more ruin to the wreckage doesn't make sense.

Rescuers become victims when they plunge headlong into the fray without waiting for the storms to cease or the bridge to stop falling. And sadly, there will never be a way to save everyone.

But to hear the militant voices crying, you would believe that no one cares, no one came to the rescue and no one intends to help at all. There are those who also complain about the quality and quantity of help extended.

No matter what is done, how it was done, or the speed at which it is accomplished, there will be grumblers who are waiting for someone to rescue them and make everything rosy again with no effort on their part.

Tragedy happens. Rain falls. Storms rage.

But within all of that there must be some sort of spiritual compass that points the way to a peace that surpasses all understanding.

I don't believe we were sent to this life to live in the lap of luxury with every need and want met. While there ARE people who do have that particular burden to bear, there are far more who bear up under suffering that doesn't get daily media attention because the circumstances required to bring news people into their lives is frankly unpleasant and most disturbing to their delicate consciences.

No one likes being a victim. And face it, all of us are blatantly guilty of ignoring the warning signs and bulletins from time to time. Most of us skate by with minimal consequence but sometimes the dire warnings are right and we lose it all.

Then there are the circumstances that place us in the role of victims that had no forewarning.

Unless there is proof of gross negligence or deliberate acts of domestic or foreign terrorism to the bridge or to the storm walls in our chosen examples, we are left with but one choice. Accidents happen. Whether by nature or the choices of another individual, there are always consequences that were unintended and unplanned.

We have to assess our own responses to personal and global suffering. When was the last time that I personally rolled up my sleeve and donated blood, or opened up my wallet to give a few bucks to the Red Cross or another organization who sponsors relief efforts?

Until I can match the microwave with my own response, I can't decide what is fast enough from another person, be they in the private sector or in the government. It's time the microwave was put back into the kitchen and left out of our personal timetables and government responses.

Now is the time that we need to focus on doing what we truly can do at the speed in which it can reasonably be expected to happen.