skin

At a conference I went to back in October, one of the presenters said we need to put skin to stories and situations. The point was being made that when we have skin – people – to associate the story or situation to, we are able to broaden our understanding and relate.

I was recently reading an article in the Seattle Times by columnist Jerry Large where he reference our (as a people) inability to stay focused or be passionate about a large number of people. Large says: "People are short-term thinkers. The headlines from Haiti will recede over time and some other trouble will take the world stage, but whether something lasting and beneficial comes of this crisis depends on our helping Haitians develop politically and economically. That requires structure, discipline and a long-term plan."

We find ourselves now 3 weeks past the Haiti earthquake, and as Large stated, the headlines from Haiti have receded. Updates from the crumbled cities are hard to come by, and we here in the US (and for sure in Seattle) are moving on to other things. We have lost the our ability to put flesh to the massive loss Haiti is experiencing.

Within the article Large wrote of a published author: "He revisits that old Stalin quotation that the death of one man is a tragedy, but the death of millions is a statistic."

In the heartache and confusion – as time passes on, how do we maintain the flesh, the ability to put skin to the stories and the tragic situation(s) before us? How do we refuse to allow those lost in Haiti to simply become a statistic?

We must find ways to see the skin, the flesh, the humanity of those around us! We must allow their story to speak truth into the darkness.