I didn’t watch the news today, but I heard about it all day, and what I was hearing were many tales of suffering all around me, in the Northeast and Vermont, great fear and loss in Texas, where fires raged, and in the middle, bickering politicians maneuvering for position. There is great caring, helping, sharing here, as I imagine there is in Texas.

Every I went, I found people whose homes were flooded, farmers who have lost their crops, business that will have to go under. I turned on the radio to hear stories of Texans burned out of their homes.

A time to consider notions of mercy and compassion,and how different they are. I was posting messages all day about the rain, and getting messages all day from Texas, where they wished for rain. People in need of compassion and relief in very different ways.

How does one handle so much need, loss, grief and fear? In our time, so much of this suffering is brought to us in the most graphic way, and continuously, it is not only impossible to escape it, it is nearly impossible to absorb it.  If you are drawn to sadness and misery, you can vanish into the ravaged homes on YouTube. In the Corporate Nation, bad news is a rising business,  the hottest commodity going. You can get it just about anywhere. Maria and I talk about our humanity a lot. We help where we can, do what we can.

On the Web, there are videos of starving children in Somalia, murder and torture in Libya and Syria, and shattered communities in Vermont, radioactive leaks in Japan. In Vermont, they pray for sun, and in Texas for rain.

As an individual who cares about humanity, I know I cannot show mercy and compassion to all of the people suffering in the world.  So I help when I can, and I take photos of light and color and emotion to try and remember the power of the light and beauty in the world, whose power brings light to darkness and hope to despair. In such times, I know my calling and feeling it strongly.