Our world, unfortunately, is one of many tragedies, too many caused by the evils of mankind, but many caused by nature.
We note the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other conflicts.
But then we hear of such things as flooding in Pakistan and a landslide in Communist China.
We deplore tragic individual deaths, and those of small numbers that occur naturally or accidentally, or because of the perversity of mankind.
But who can grasp the enormity of the deaths of 1,200 Chinese in a mudslide and flooding, with at least one town partially still under water?
Life is amazing and marvelous, but challenging, in many ways for the perhaps 5 billion people throughout our world. Many tragedies are from “normal” hazards, ranging from earthquakes to storms of great intensity to automobile accidents. But we cannot understand the sudden deaths of many hundreds.
We recall the words of English poet John Donne (1572-1631): “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less …; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”