Humble Pie

Normally I want to write something humorous...something funny...something comical.  Not today.

I was dropping my daughter off at high school this morning and was listening to a disc jockey calling her sister, Pam, live on the air.  The disc jockey wanted to get a first person story from her sister who works with a ministry of some sort and helps orphans.  Pam (the sister) was working in Haiti at the time of the earthquake.

The disc jockey called her sister on the air and asked her to tell the story of what she was doing when the earthquake hit.  Pam said they were luckily inside a house that was well built but survived falling down.  She said it felt like it was an 8.0 compared to other California quakes she had witnessed.  It went on for what seemed forever and then it stopped.

She said it was as if the world had stopped and it was deathly quiet for many seconds after they stepped outside....and then she said it was as if someone told everyone on the island, at the same time, to scream.  She could hear one collective scream from the entire island.

Families knew people who could help were at this house and they started to bring injured people throughout the day.  One family brought a young girl that had a severe wound down to her exposed ankle bone.  Pam said the family had cut off a hunk of the girl's hair, burned it, and then stuffed it into the wound!  She did not know why they had done that - perhaps their only way to stop the flow of blood.  Pam had to pick the burned hair out of the cut and then try to sterilze her open wound with hydrogen peroxide.  She never wanted to see something like that again.

I was sickened.  I was saddened.  I was humbled.  If you do ANYTHING today, do something for someone else.  Whether it is for someone you know; or someone you don't know...give of yourself.  Don't complain for one day...one minute...nor one second.  There is always someone in the world who has less than you.

I am off to eat my own slice of humble pie.