a humble story from the west coast in the wake of japan's tragedy.
i live very close to the los angeles river, which empties into the pacific ocean. my friend sandi and i walk alongside it often as there's a fantastic biking/walking path that goes for miles and miles - all the way down to the beach.
well today, given the obvious, we didn't go anywhere near to the actual coast - in fact we remained at least a mile from it.
at any rate, we were walking and talking, a subdued mood hanging between us, when in mid-sentence sandi stopped dead, pointed at the river and said, "the ducks are floating backwards." we paused, dumbfouded and stared. the force of the waves from the tsunami was causing the river to flow in the opposite direction.
the los angeles river was flowing upstream.
perhaps, just reading these words on a computer screen, it seems like not such a big deal? but let me assure you that there is a particular sensation of the uncanny, and not just a little discomfort to see a river flowing in the 'wrong' direction.
so we watched, mostly in silence for several minutes, along with others who were gathering to gaze at the water with nervous curiosity.
eventually we resumed our walking, but with a slightly altered mood hanging about us - still serious, but with some strangeness and wonder wafting about . . . and then, just a few meters beyond where we had perched to peer at the water we noticed a distressed sea gull hopping along the concrete river bed, his severely broken wing dragging along the ground.
well, both sandi and i do a little bit of animal rescue work, but typically we deal with domestic animals, cats, rabbits, dogs, chickens. yet we knew we had to at least try to help the poor bird.
one can of mackerel and an hour later we had a certainly frightened, but perhaps slightly relieved gull inside a cat carrier. and then we were in the car and on our way to a saint of a local vet who accepts wildlife for rehabilitation . . .
now i understand that contrasted against the sheer horror, the overwhelming massiveness of the human tragedy playing out in japan, that to save the life of one gull seems . . . pathetic.
but you know what?
after watching the images coming out of japan this morning, after feeling those intense sensations of helplessness, of wanting to be able to "do something" and not having any power whatsoever---there was something hopeful, something comforting, something just slightly powerful in being able to help that single bird.
there really was.
my prayers and thoughts continue to go out to everyone around the globe impacted by the disaster.
and i hope yours are too.
