At Sea Debris Field - Japan's Earthquake and Tsunami

I have been preoccupied lately with  the debris in my basement... Check out this photo released by the U.S. Navy of what they refer to as an "at sea debris field"--a house floating days later and miles from the coast of Japan:

Last January, shortly after I began my "A Year of Living Leaner" blog, the Haiti earthquake struck. I thought then that it was the worst disaster I had ever witnessed on cable television. Finally I had to turn away from the horrific and vivid scenes projected on our large HD screen and get back to my mundane and privileged life.

Now we have a triple disaster unfolding minute by minute, with several nuclear plants reactors in imminent danger of meltdown.

 The house above is actually amazingly intact--perhaps it can be towed to shore and salvaged. It is the most "preserved" debris that I've seen since the earthquake and tsunami.

A more typical debris field at sea from 3-13-11 looks like this--a bit worse than my basement:

My point is not to dwell on the demise of Japan--I can't do much to help. All the money that went to Haiti has seemingly made little difference. I wonder if a large amount of that money has been diverted. Japan will undoubtedly pick up the pieces more quickly than Haiti, but no one can ever give enough money to take away the deep heartache of lost loved ones. It almost makes me hope that whole families were swept out to sea together!

I would like to contribute to an organization like Franklin Graham's Samaritan Purse, trusting that he would put the money to prudent use. I hope Graham and his favorite Fox News trip companion, Greta Van Susteren, will travel there soon, if it safe to do so and the radiation levels from a possible meltdown are contained.

Photo I took of Mt. Fuji from my resort window

Hireko and I near Mt. Fuji

During the summer of 2000 I stayed for two days at the home of my hostess, Hireko, in the northern part of the huge city of Tokyo. I then traveled with her pastor and her, in 100 degree weather and heavy traffic, to a resort near the beautiful Mt. Fuji, for two days of fellowship with Japanese Christians and my tour choir. I hope she and her family are all safe. I have a manila folder with a letter, her address and some beautiful stamps she sent to me--somewhere in a file box in the basement! Long ago I lost contact with her, but I  remember her first name, probably because my husband periodically receives a golf club catalog from a company with that name.


My point is simply how trivial my life and problems once again appear, set against the backdrop of the pictures coming out of Japan. If my house and basement are a little cluttered--so what? I have a house and lots of nice stuff. Try to imagine what it would be like to lose everything in one fell swoop? I have trouble getting rid of my things, item by item, wondering if I will ever need or miss them. I still wish I had saved a couple of my crazy bell-bottoms I purchased as a co-ed in 1969. I thought they were so hip at the time--one pair was orange and pink and black--a radical departure from my generally conservative wardrobe. Also, I don't know what happened to my wedding dress. I think it was lost in our last move in 1991-- I most certainly would have saved it. Perhaps it will be pulled from the rubble as I dig in my own debris field.

As you may have figured out by now, I have way more stuff than I can manage. Unfortunately, I'm beginning to love that stuff a little more as I have witnessed just how quickly it can all be swept out to sea--maybe not in a tsunami here in Michigan, but a tornado or an earthquake or a FIRE (a terrifying thought) could possibly happen.

WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE TO LOSE ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING YOU OWN???

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One fell swoope is a line from Shakespeare's Macbeth (1605) when Macduff learns his wife and entire family have been murdered.