I am so very saddened by the recent news from China. Over 18,000 people are reported buried in just one of the cities affected. I hope that everyone we met last month is okay. But even then, there are thousands of people we didn’t meet who were affected. People who are just as kind, as generous, as hospitable as the many wonderful Chinese folks we did get a chance to know.
The news coming out of Myanmar in the past few weeks saddened me, too, but having just come from China… for some reason, this time, the news really sunk in. Or, rather, I let it sink in. You hear these ridiculously high numbers, and it all becomes a blur. You don’t want to think about how many lives are truly lost, or forever changed by the loss of a husband, a mother, a child, or a home.
But then I thought about Wang Da Wei, Li Bao Hua, and each individual face and personality….they aren’t just numbers. If one of my Chinese friends, or one of the fellow travelers we made friends with, was a part of that 18,000… that’s one really awesome person who is no longer here. 1, 2, 3, 26,000…. it adds up. People and more people. Silenced. Buried. Gone.
China will rebuild. Efficiently, collectively. The people will come together, work their asses off, and within a year or so there will be no sign of this gigantic earthquake that took so many lives. Children will be born. Widows will remarry. Life will go on. China has been going on for thousands of years. The quiet strength of its people is impressive. But there will be grief. There will be scars below the surface. There will be remembrance. And there will, hopefully, be healing.
