News clips and survivor photos customarily show faces of pain and loss. Canyons of hurt cut across memory's landscapes. It is the same with 'natural' disasters everywhere. But all the pain of natural disasters pales when compared to the pain people suffer in relationships. When people are poled regarding their deepest pains, nurturer's disasters leave nature's disasters far behind.
People hurt people more, and more deeply than do the forces of nature.
Mothers pass on more pain than the wind. Mother Nature can't compete with abusive and distant dads. Our capacity to pass along intense hurt to the next generation is profound. But just as in the aftermath of natural disasters we sometimes see dramatic examples of love and grace displayed in effected communities, so in our relational lives it is sometimes in the aftermath of disaster that we see possibilities and richness which were not visible or even imaginable to us before the pain. In the center of the next morning's front page was a picture of the rescued house and its banner saying a huge thank you to the helpful neighbors.