Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Hawaii with my family for our vacation. It was an amazing time. Our last night there, we became aware of the terrible news about the earthquake that hit Japan. As a result, a ripple effect of tsunamis hit most of the pacific rim that night, including Hawaii, about 5 hours after we learned about the earthquake.
We received the news around 10pm Hawaii time, that a 10-ft wave would hit the state of Hawaii at about 3:20am local time. Between the hotel announcements, tsunami warning sirens and the constant newscasts about how bad it was going to be, we could not sleep. Being awake I decided to check the Facebook. I read a couple of messages from friends that wanted to know if I was OK, knowing that I was in Hawaii at the time. But I also read about 40 out of the 600 of my closest friends' statuses, all talking about the breaking news.
"Praying for Japan in this terrible tragedy", "Please pray for the country of Japan", "OMG Japan just got hit by an earthquake ... this is bad, people". Most statuses were like that, even a day after the fact.
When I read these statements, I started thinking to myself if any of these people actually knew anyone in Japan. I wondered if they even knew Japanese people. I wonder if they have ever prayed in their life. I really doubt it. But these were the people who really cared about tragedies and humanity. These were the ones that were aware about the needs of others. What was funny was that the people who contacted me when they found out about what was about to happen in Hawaii, were not the ones with the caring statuses. They were not the ones posting how to easily donate $10 to the Japan Earthquake relief effort through your phone. They were not the ones giving statistics about this tragedy. They were not the ones who cared.
I'll be honest, I wasn't in any tragedy, in fact, we didn't even get hit by the wave in our part of the island, but as we braced for the unknown, it was nice to receive comments from the people who in my mind are the ones who really cared. They cared about an immediate specific need that they could meet. I think is noble to think about the needs of the entire world; wanting to go to Africa to feed the starving children, placing a magnet in our car showing that we support our troops or children with autism. The truth is that in my experience this is were our noble acts end; just wishful thinking. The people that want to feed the children of Africa, go around the curb to avoid a homeless person. The people who preach about domestic violence are consumed by road rage. The people who feel like they have to remind people to vote probably only know who the president is. The people who say they pray for an entire country, probably have never prayed for a friend or a family member who is going through a hard time in their life. I know it sounds very critical, but my opinion is that these considerate facebook posts are just meant to show other people that we care, but is not really caring.
What happened in Japan was tragic, what happened to me in Hawaii was an inconvenience. But out of this experience I was able to see what I find myself guilty of a lot of times. I want to meet the needs of other, not just care about them, or show people how much I care.
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