Thoughts and Prayers

CNN.com is my homepage. And it will forever remain my homepage because it gives me constant updates of breaking news going on all around the world. In less than 2 minutes I can skim over every headline from all different parts of the world. When I hear about Gadhafi and Libya I'm concerned but it doesn't directly affect me. When I read about the 21 oil workers rescued in Columbia I'm happy but again it doesn't directly affect me. But then I'm following this Japanese Tsunami story and I realize that I know/have played basketball with two people in the last year, who are now there. One, a teammate of mine last season, and former Stanford standout Taj Finger, who I learned today was safe. And another Japanese player who came to our team last season to work out with us who we simply called Ishi. I learned today that his city was the one that got hit directly and our coach, who communicates directly with his team, has not been able to get in touch with him. Although he was only here for a few months and his English needed work, there was still that "I'm away from home playing basketball and you are away from home playing basketball" sort of connection. We'd eat together and attempt conversations after practice and even though that was the extent of it, he's still someone I feel concerned about. And that is why, in this case, a simple tweet saying "My thoughts and prayers are with #Japan"didn't seem like enough.

Life is not promised and I don't think we should forget that. When I was in Elementary school at PS 153 (The Helen Keller School) I remember learning this quote "although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it" -Helen Keller. So that's where my prayers are at. That Japan can overcome this disaster. And my thoughts today are with trying to build upon relationships I've made in the past and present so that I don't have this "what if" feeling in the future.

"Do What You Do" --blackhercules21