so much for cosmic (spiritual?) interconnectedness

In this last and most recent analysis, we are ultimately alone.

Not in the short, small individual relationship sense (in which we are, then we are not, then sometimes we are again), but in a vast cosmic sense. In a great, gaping, vast infinity of empty, black space sense.

In the sense that, while preparing dinner last night, I was in a perfectly pleasant mood, good spirits–enjoying that certain aura of contentment that comes with having no greater concern than whether I’ve added just the right amount of basil to my gorgonzola spread.

It wasn’t until halfway through dinner that someone mentioned that there had been an earthquake in Haiti. It was said at dinner that 100,000 were dead, buildings flattened, a country reduced from struggling poverty to screaming ruins in a mere matter of minutes–but some accident (function) of indifferent geology.

I’m taken aback at my lightheartedness while I prepared dinner. Not that I hadn’t seen the news or read a report. But rather, that somewhere mere hours away by airplane a human tragedy of such potent and immediate magnitude was unfolding–while I was completely unperturbed, unaware.

We are not all one. Were we, I should have sensed the tragedy. I should have been unnerved, ill at ease, inexplicably upset or distressed. Not brimming with contentment, unwrapping my baked garlic.

And yet I was.

So much for spirituality. So much for cosmic interconnectedness. So much for Haiti…