I should be thinking about my work, but all my thoughts are for a people thousands of miles away. I hurt so much inside for these people I have never known, from a place I have never been. All the fear, hurt and sorrow they must have, losing so many they loved. Great towns and villages washed away in a few minutes.
I feel ashamed that my physical life remains unchanged today, though my emotions are devastated. Though we are different, we are the same. I would like to reach out to these people, but I have nothing to offer. How do you say, "Everything will be OK."
If I were younger and healthier, I would want to go to Sendai and do all I could do to help. I would even be willing to give my life for a people and a nation I have never known if doing so could bring back one of their loved ones — a child, a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, a friend.
Shouldn't we all as human beings have compassion for others and share their pain? Forget the past, forget politics, religious differences or hatred of any kind — these things have no place here. They should share no space next to broken hearts.
All the horror they must have felt, all the hurt they must feel — I try to imagine myself in their place and am overwhelmed. I want to say "I am sorry for these people," but it seems so cheap.
I can only say as an insignificant person in my own country that I do care and hurt so bad inside for all of them. It's time to care. I hope we all have this inside of us, somewhere in our hearts. Then and only then is there hope for us all.