sense memory

[ironymaiden]

C and i have been looking at galleries of pictures from Haiti and the relief effort. (from The Big Picture and The Guardian). they're still finding survivors in the rubble as of today.

C shared this one of search and rescue dogs lined up for shipment in Spain, and my first thought was "at least they'll find people alive".

and then i burst into tears. funny things that stick with you: back in 2001, there was a story about the dogs trained for live humans that were searching the rubble of the World Trade Center. the dogs were wigging out because they weren't finding anyone alive. finally the handlers had to bury some live volunteers be "found". hearing that story on the radio almost ten years ago left us both incapacitated with tears, and this morning we both choked up again with an oblique reminder. i wonder how long it will take before the physical response fades.




and i wonder what happens to us when the next quake hits here and those memory triggers are live.

Comments

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

It still hits me. I can't tell you what a comfort it is to know I'm not alone with this. I feel like I'm weak and a baby but it's like taking a bandage off and it's still bleeding underneath. And over here, people really don't understand it at all, I don't think.

For Haiti I keep flashing back to Katrina and how it was such a giant clusterfuck. The numbers of dead are truly astounding but it's really reminding me of how, day after day, as the news came out from New Orleans, I just couldn't believe things were as screwed up as they were. (I did, however, realize things were an utter disaster in Haiti and have been for a while. But I feel like things are not going to get better for days still.)