survival

So here's a snippet of hopeful stories of survival from the Washington Post:

A 13-year-old girl survived drifting at sea for two days off the Indian island of Car Nicobar, clinging to a door, a tree and a sack. In Sri Lanka, Dayalan Sanders, a Sri Lankan-born U.S. citizen, rescued the 28 orphans in his care by reacting quickly. Spotting the tsunami, he and his wife corralled the children onto a motorboat and outran the waves, seconds before their orphanage was crushed by a 30-foot wall of water.

So the death toll continues to rise, as does the threat of additional tsunamis. I can't imagine. Mother Nature is rather fierce when she wants to be. It's shocking to think that the ultimate fate of something as majestic as a 30 ft wall of water is destruction. The scenario reminds me of the Pittsburgh flooding...if we build on flood planes, we face the danger of flooding. Similarly, if we choose to live in proximity of something as volatile as the Ring of Fire, we can expect a certain degree of danger. Terrible as that sounds, it's not as if tsunamis are newly discovered. We know what can happen beneath the sea...we've seen it before (though perhaps i wasn't alive at the time). Sometimes i wonder if humans are truly the most intelligent race on earth, or the most ignorant, desperate, and stubborn. We stare mother nature in the face and continuously ignore her warnings. I should stop being cynical. I'm sad for all these people that have died, it's not the time to be analyzing the follies of the human race. These people lived without fear, enjoying their daily life in homes they knew and loved, and in one fell swoop life was violently ended for some, and forever changed for others.

Now that I've posted a thoroughly depressing monologue, I have to end on something else. I made oatmeal banana waffles last night and they were really good. Those waffles pleased 4 different tummies. Waffles seem like a good enough topic as any to lift ones spirits....so go make some waffles if you're feeling down.