"SOME OF US HAVE TO GIVE MORE"

I sat down to the computer this evening with intentions of writing a piece on "perfection" but I have temporarily placed the idea on hold.  I was just too distracted and disturbed by the flow of news coming out of the devastated country of Haiti more than a week after the cataclysmic earthquake that is being felt around the world.  Out of every catastrophe, however, there is always a glimmer of hope and never has a photograph  told a story more effectively than the above which was published in the Toronto Star today.  The camera lens of Matthew McDermott captured the real-life miracle of seven-year-old Kiki, his arms outstretched, his sunken face beaming as he was pulled from the rubble in Port-au-Prince covered in dust, exhausted and dehydrated -- but ever the victor. 

The boy and his sister had been trapped beneath the ruins of an apartment building in the Haitian capital for eight days.  The jubilation being expressed by rescue workers and Kiki's mother reaching out to him as he was pulled to safety says more that any words ever could.

The remarkable rescue was perhaps the most poignant in days, coming at a time when hope for finding more survivors was fleeting.  North Americans have been responding admirably to the catastrophe but the Haitian need for help and support will go on for years.  Rosanne and I discussed, with some frustration over dinner this evening, how we might make a contribution to Haitian relief given our limited resources.  "If everyone in the world contributed $10.00, just think of what could be accomplished," Rosanne suggested prompting my reservation: "Only trouble is, not everyone has $10.00 to give."

"That's why we have to give more!" Rosanne replied with conviction. 

My ill-timed essay on perfection will wait for another day.