Since March 11, we all have been bombarded with scenes and stories highlighting the unspeakably tragic events unfolding in Japan. Image after image reinforces the almost unfathomable physical devastation.
A friend of mine flew over Japan on business a few days ago, and from thousands of feet in the air he took this photo of the coastline.
What do you notice? I’ll tell you what I noticed… beauty and nature in stunning simplicity. Looking at this image through the lens of the last several days is painful and surreal and poignant. I find it almost cruel how lovely, serene and normal this image is. I mean, shouldn’t the scars of the earthquake and tsunami and the very aching grief itself of the Japanese people be somehow reflected on the landscape?
Perhaps this picture ought to remind me to appreciate the resilience of the earth, its hardiness and its very constancy in the face of dramatic upheaval. But I can’t. I can’t celebrate that today. Today I grieve down in my soul for everyone in Japan who is simply trying to endure… trying to remember just to breathe.
Today, this image as much as the others breaks my heart.
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