Germany has declared war on Russia.
Swimming in the afternoon.
— Franz Kafka's diary entry for August 2, 1914
To have a site like this is to be self-absorbed. It's not one of those
dynamic blogs that scoop traditional news services and exert political
influence. It's not a fan site designed to keep the followers of
writers or performers apprised of their schedules. It's "a journal of
personal essays," designed to do what Frances McCullough says Sylvia
Plath's diaries did for her, " . . . chart a life, . . . pique a
memory, . . . confirm inner life
and perhaps . . . dispel the doubt that one exists at all." And, as I
observed in the
very first piece
I posted here, we all know what happened to Sylvia.
While I've been congratulating myself for having written 15,000 words
this month, outlining my plans to write some more, and suggesting
that writing a snappy, interesting holiday letter that doesn't make
your friends wish they'd never met you isn't all that hard, people half
a world away have been struggling with the effects of a powerful
earthquake
in the Indian Ocean and the resulting tsunamis which have killed
more than a hundred thousand people, with tens of thousands still
missing and more than a million left homeless. It seems that the Good
News which Advent calls us to anticipate will be a long time coming for
many.
Franz Kafka's diary entry that seems to put the event that would tear
Europe apart on the same level with his afternoon recreation is often
held up as an example of self-absorption. If I kept such an
epigrammatic little book I might have written for this past Monday,
"Tidal waves have left a million people homeless. I bought a novel
about Wyoming this afternoon."
Some online journallers have put up banners and buttons calling for
donations to the relief efforts. Chances are, if you're reading this,
you already know where those donation sites are or have your own
preferred
channel for your generosity. If you don't have a preference, try
The Hunger Site or
UNICEF. They're my
favorites.
