tsunami

Today is the 4th anniversary of the south-east asian tsunami. This is something I realized early after waking up this morning, and I remember thinking about it last year as well (and probably the year before that, as well). What's strange for me isn't necessarily that most people have "forgotten" or that they just don't remember. The strange part is that the tsunami, for me, is the most important historical event of my lifetime, more important to me than 9/11, or hurricane katrina, the war in iraq, the election of a black president, darfur, etc. I'm not making claims about its historical importance in relation to these other events, just its importance to me. But the tsunami is much more haunting to me and has much more impact than these other events. I don't even understand why I feel this way, or I why I feel so strongly about it, but I do. One year from now, I want to be in Phuket attending the tsunami memorials, but we'll see if that happens. In large part, I would just like to talk to the people who were there when it came.