Be Strong, Pass it On

Remember the earthquake in Japan? I hardly do, and that makes my stomach turn. I've been wallowing in my own misery the last few days, sick and overwhelmed by nearly everything. But today I was contacted by a company called Horipro, one of the preeminent total entertainment providers in Japan, and decided to climb out of my literal bed (of my own making). Here's part of the press release that they sent me:

In response to the March 11th earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, HoriPro Entertainment Group songwriters Matt Palmer and Pascal Guyon teamed up to write an inspirational song dedicated to the mothers and children affected by the tragedy.  A few weeks later, a choir of children from the Los Angeles HORIPRO Music Academy, ages 3-13, joined the effort to add their voices to the song and make a music video to accompany their message of hope. It is HoriPro's intent to create awareness of the continued need for relief aid to the mothers and children of Japan. As such, HoriPro Entertainment Group is hosting a donation site, bestrongjapan, offering a song/video package of Be Strong, available for download for a minimum donation of $5.00. 


The campaign is designed to give contributors control over where their money is sent by allowing options for charities focused on aiding mothers and children -- UNICEF, Save the Children, or JOICFP. 100% of the proceeds will be delivered to the organization of their choice.

HoriPro is delivering the following official statement:

HELP SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF HOPE AND SUPPORT. 

BE STRONG. PASS IT ON.

Here's more information on the charities:

Donation Site:

www.bestrongjapan.org

JOICEP is a non-profit organization that helps give back to women and mothers in disaster-affected areas, focused on improving maternal health, responding to the reproductive health of women in devastation areas, as well as the delivery of diapers, sanitary napkins and relief clothing for women and newborns.

UNICEF Unicef is a foundation focused on working with others to overcome the obstables of poverty, disease, and discrimination placed in a child's path. UNICEF works in 190 countries through country programs and National Committees.

SAVE THE CHILDREN is the leading independent organization dedicated to improving the lives of 

children in disaster-stricken areas by providing food, medical care and education.

On disability and Japan

Suzanne Kamata, the editor of Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs,  lives in Japan and has written a powerful essay about the current tragedy. You can read it HERE.

Pennies for Japan

Henry and Oliver making wishes and throwing pennies into the fountain for Japan

My profound thanks to each of you who commented on my post the other day. Thank you, particularly, for de-lurking -- your words mean so much to me and I have enjoyed visiting some new and beautiful blogs! If you missed it, please feel free to leave a comment and I will add to my donation which will be made to the Red Cross early next week. I will send my donation keeping in mind that I am connected to everyone, that we are all connected and can participate in alleviating suffering anywhere in the world.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart (which is quite deep!)

On Lurking and Witnessing, 3

Henry, 2011

In keeping with a terrific idea over at mother words, mothers who write, I am going to ask all the readers who come here daily (thank you!) to perhaps leave a comment this time. For every comment left from someone who hasn't before or who does so rarely, I will donate $1.00 to the Red Cross relief efforts in Japan. I know that there is little I can do here to help those in Japan, but I am filled with gratitude by the community I have here and hope to meld the two. And, yes, if the hundreds of you who visit decide not to leave a comment, I'll definitely go to my statcounter and send a donation anyway --

Some more thoughts on witness

bodies preserved by ash from Pompeii after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius

I said before, like many other people, that it seems impossible to write or think about anything else when so much tragedy is unfolding in Japan. I've scrolled through the photos, looked at the videos, heard the audio footage, teared up at the woman, sitting in the wreckage of her town, and felt my smallness and the preciousness of my children, our lives, all life. What can I do? What can we do? What is happening to this crazy world of ours? When does it end?

I found a list of sixty-six of the world's worst natural disasters and will copy a few here --

Syria - Aleppo - 1138
Earthquake kills 230,000 people


Japan, 1118
Famine wipes out 118,000 people


Egypt and Syria, 1201
Earthquake wipes out 1.1 million people


Netherlands, 1228
floods after a dyke breaks kills more than 100,000


China, 1290
100,000 people dead


Europe and beyond 1347-1350
Bubonic plague kills 25 million


China, 1556
Earthquake kills 830,000


China 1876-1979
Drought and starvation kills 9 million people

I have to think that part of the paralysis many of us feel when seeing and reading about the situation in Japan is because we are, as a people, privy to these disasters in ways that we never were before. I'm not sure the human brain can fully take it all in and then react in any constructive way, outside of literally being there. The ability we have now, through technology, to be there, is deceptive, I think -- we aren't there, really. The beauty, though, of the technology, is that it draws us a bit closer to our fellow humans and enables us, in some small way to be there as best we can.

I saw this quote today of the Dalai Lama, a man I'm certain has witnessed his fair share of cruel natural and human tragedy:

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.

Donate HERE.

Witness

near Lake Arrowhead, this weekend, CA

I find myself paralyzed to write anything on this blog in the wake of the unfolding tragedy in Japan. I went on a camping trip with my boys this weekend in the mountains around Lake Arrowhead and took some beautiful photos, but I just don't have the heart to post anything.

I feel so ineffectual -- as most people do, I'm sure -- in the face of the devastation in Japan. Sending money, praying for relief for the people -- it all seems so lame. We live in a present that shows us with all too much clarity and vividness the past -- the images of the quake's and the tsunami's aftermath are impossible not to scroll through -- and I wonder if it's voyeurism but hope that the witnessing of the suffering can in some way help to assuage it. I have to think that being a witness to suffering and to irreparable loss is in some way a necessity while also leaving one in an almost unsolvable quandary -- that we are all connected but often helpless to those connections. 

Silence

That man's life is but a dream -
is what we now come to know


Its house abandoned,
the garden has become home
to butterflies


Monk Sogi (1421-1502)


People can text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific.