sorrow amongst the living

i am back home now. i'll be sure to download and post some pictures soon.

it is a strange time to come back to the U.S. the news that has captured our nation's attention is the VT murders - 33 people in all, including the killer. tragic and sad. it is hard to process.


when the 9/11 attacks happened six years ago, i remember feeling sorrow. at the same time, i didn't feel as shocked or outraged as my fellow U.S. citizens. many innocent adults were killed in NYC on that day, but i couldn't get over the fact that innocent adults and children were and are still being killed elsewhere a thousand-fold. so having just returned from SE Asia where senseless and brutal mass murder of the innocent occurred not in the dozens but in the millions, i'm having a difficult time comprehending the magnitude of shock, outrage & grief to which the VT massacre has gotten. in a world filled with senseless murder and hate, i wonder why our shock is so localized and sensationalized. and more importantly, i wonder why our sorrow seems to stop at our nation's boundaries.

(above is a picture of an annual march buddhist monks and nuns do through Angkor. amazingly, i happened to visit Angkor on that day! the banner the monks are carrying say: "there is no happiness greater than peace.")