Unimaginable. Period.

Anyone remotely cognizant this past weekend witnessed the fragility of our humanity as the constantly evolving events unfolded in Japan. How do you describe the complete destruction of a community, state and family?

Louisianans, of all people, can appreciate and understand the gut wrenching fear and despair the people of Japan must be experiencing right now. We have felt before the feeling of hopelessness as supplies are begged for, infrastructure is decimated, and human suffering surrounds you. We also know that while we often witness the human element of greed in our daily lives, another human element becomes very evident during times of extreme crisis – the human element of love.

Imagine for a few seconds that you are a Japanese mother who is driving to work across town after just dropping your child off at school. Then the road in front of you is jutted upwards and a large crack in the earth forms as a violent 9.1 earthquake tosses everything around you.

Then, when the shaking subsides, you hear sirens alerting you of an imminent tsunami barreling towards the coast. You pick up your phone to call the school but cell towers are down. You try to drive your car but the roads are impassable. The only thing left to do is run in the opposite direction of the coming rush of water. You make it to the top of a hill or bridge and then watch as Mother Nature, in all of her fury, unleashes the scenes of a Hollywood movie disaster as the water moves cars, destroys buildings, and swallows land.

Then you remember that your child’s school was only two miles inland and your breathing stops for a second and as your heart races your stomach sinks. Then the screaming begins – from the water, inside the rubble, and from places that are no longer visible.  You stand there in the middle of a swirling crisis and — without complete comprehension of the gravity of the situation — have the creeping feeling that you are experiencing history in the making and the lives of everyone around you will never be the same.

In these moments, all political, racial, social and economic prejudices are reduced to the miniscule level of importance where most of them belong. We all become humans in need of the simple necessities of life – food, water and security. For brief periods of time, we all become stripped of the societal biases and begin to act as a community, a family, a people.

Pray for better days for the people of Japan. Support recovery efforts. Remember that we’re all human. We are just at the beginning of a very long journey of recovery for Japan.

The last bite…

In support of the recovery efforts, I am donating to the Red Cross the amount I spent on my “last bite” so the people of Japan can have their “next bite.”

Buddy Boe, a resident of LaPlace, is a former parish administrator and is well known on the local political (and food) scenes. His column appears every Wednesday in L’Observateur.