The faces of Haiti's nightmare stay in the soul and the heart. Our minds can't take it in. We send money, we want to do more, we want the suffering to stop, we want the world to be an easier place -- dear God, we want you to help them! What can we do? Amid the news of suffering, after shocks, and looting, I got an email from Crate and Barrel happily announcing their quick kitchen deals at best buy prices. It was a lovely ad with Martha Stewart colors -- tangerine, light blue, and yellow. Was I updating my kitchen, they wanted to know? Creating a wedding registry? No. I was doing none of those things -- I was sitting at my computer, my heart broken over the suffering in Haiti. I did not give one roaring rip about a silver dollar pancake pan for $29. 99 plus shipping. I did not want a 24-cup cupcake carrier on sale for $19.95, that's a five dollar savings. I didn't want a Snow Pup dishcloths set or a 2-piece mini silicone holiday spatula. I wanted to remember the faces.
It's so fast, this world of ours. Pictures of poverty, despair, Big Macs, war, disaster, orphans, espresso machines. Where do the tough images go when we've clicked to something else? They stay somewhere, don't they? Do they get pureed in with all the other images, the emails, the tweets? There's no way to slow this world down, but perhaps for this day, we can say no. Not today. Today, I'm going to look at the faces of Haiti, and say, that could be my son, my friend, my mother. These are my brothers and sisters. I ache for them. I've helped, but I've got to do more. So today, I'm tallying up some of Crate and Barrel's best buy prices, writing a check, and sending that money to Haiti. It's a small thing, but small things can have great power tucked inside.
