Suffering and other related topics

I just watched Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of Kindertransport, a documentary by Mark Jonathan Harris. It's about a sort of underground railroad for children that transported more than 10,000 children from Germany and other places to England as World War II was fomenting. I wept for the entire 117-minute film, and the additional interviews in the Special Features section.

This amazing film gave me some perspective about my own situation.

All I could do, when I saw the archival footage and heard the history of the pogroms and the brutality, was say, "Why? Why?! WHY?!"

The horrors are unspeakable. Yet this kind of thing goes on in our world right now. The sheer numbers cited about genocide or the battle casualty scorecards are overwhelming, especially when you think that each one of those numbers represents a REAL INDIVIDUAL HUMAN BEING and the loss of each person has a ripple effect through families and communities and ultimately the entire human race.

I know I need to go back to my media fast; yesterday I happened to be in a waiting room where a television blared CNN coverage of the updated story of a woman who died in police custody at the Phoenix airport. She was on her way from New York to a rehabilitation facility in Tucson, and she lost it,was taken into custody by airport police, and she died from asphixiation, ostensibly from trying to escape from her handcuffs. CNN continually replayed footage of the woman running about the concourse and then being taken by the police. Then they played the recording of the woman's husband very calmly but with great urgency telling the police dispatcher that his wife was suicidal, that she must not be left alone, that the rehab facility was waiting for her in Tucson, that he was greatly concerned that no one was communicating with him about his wife's situation. In between those scenes, they flashed happy family photos of the woman with her three(?) children.

I just bawled openly; the people around me looked away discreetly until I finally got the hell out of there. NO MORE NEWS for Heather. No NPR, no more heart-rending documentaries. No sad movies, no violence, no nuthin'. I just can't take it. My own reality is just a bit too much to take right now without adding the burden of the world's suffering. Selfish or not, that's my prescription.

I just got off the phone with my oldest friend in the world. She lives in Germany and she has five children. She has had her own health issues to deal with, but recently her 7-year-old got hurt at school. He had to have an operation on his foot. BA told me about his hospitalization, her oldest daughter's taking over the household for her brothers for a time while her parents were in and out of the hospital. Her husband is away on business and it's just too much to take. We both want to rescue each other.

"How come we never knew it would be so hard?" She lamented. Can I get a witness?

More weeping ensued, because as hard as it is to endure our own trials, to witness our children's suffering is a zillion times worse than any pain we can endure.

Energy allotment used up. End of post.