the mystery of human sympathy

Against my wishes and better judgment, I've allowed myself to get sucked in to the craziness surrounding this Terri Schiavo case, and I just need to give my two cents... I find it mystifying that people would devote weeks of their lives to save the "life" of someone whose brain is spinal fluid, but can't be bothered to give a few dollars to save the lives of the thousands of people who starve to death every day. Unlike the Mrs. Schiavo, there are tens of thousands of people out there right now who are unlucky enough to consciously suffer through starvation. They endure a fate worse than most of us can imagine. Yet we don't care enough to even let it cross our minds on a day to day basis. Maybe it's like my husband speculates -- these people fighting to save Terri's life only do so because they have someone to fight against (namely the people who want to let her go). Maybe it's because we can readily imagine a scenario where we want to live but can't communicate that fact to anyone else, but wrapping our minds around the horror of mass starvation is just too much to deal with. Maybe it's as mundane as the fact that this is what the media chose to make important this week. Probably a combination of all of the above. But this shows that we really are capable of helping our fellow humans in a meaningful way, if only given the proper motivation to feel sympathy.

OK, I've had my say. Angry backlash in 3... 2... 1....

Forgetfulness

I had really forgotten that I even created this blog until my good friend Meredith mentioned that she had created a blog of her own. So, after searching the scary depths of my mind trying to figure out what I might have used for my username and password, I finally found my way back here.