The Japanese disaster is almost incalculable in terms of human suffering. Yes, we can put a number on the physical damage, and yes, we can define economic loss, but how does one calculate the human suffering, the loss of loved ones, the loss of everything one has or knows as a way of life?
It seems hardly appropriate to write about economics, money, trading, or investing today. It seems “out of place” to think about what the effect will be on the market. It seems odd to think about anything now but the people we care about and the good things in our lives. Yes, it seems odd …
Today is not a good day when the news is constant data about human loss and potential disaster regarding that which we have built to make our lives better. I cannot comprehend in this moment that what just happened in Japan might not be over, that the earthquake and tsunami might have only opened the door to greater pain and suffering.
It is not a day to think or write about money, economics, trading, investing, or any other impersonal aspect of life, at least not for me. The suffering across the Pacific is horrific, and the total fallout from that historic disaster is yet to arrive fully, but I have to put that aside as I only have so much room for abstract emotional pain.
Life for each of us serves up plenty of concrete emotional pain. We cannot run from it, nor can we hide. Emotional pain is ubiquitous. It weaves in and out of our lives constantly, and if one is free from emotional pain, it seeks out another and another, and still another. Yet, this is our lot as humans; we feel the pain, and so we suffer from that which causes the pain, that which shows not one of us preference, not a one of us a shred of mercy.
So today, I dedicate my words to those in Japan who are suffering from recent events, and to those who might suffer from the calamities the Japanese are fighting to contain. As well, though, I also dedicate my words today to those individuals who are not suffering from earthquakes, tsunamis, or radioactive fallout, to those who are experiencing emotional pain from the loss of a loved one, or who are experiencing emotional pain around the suffering of a loved one, or who are devastated for one reason or another.
Although the events in Japan are devastating on a truly grand scale, and human suffering plays out on that same grand scale, we must not forget about those who are not in the news, those who simply suffer in silence, in a more private space. These folks suffer no less a degree than those who suffer in Japan, Libya, New Zealand, Australia, or anywhere else where disaster takes its toll on the members of the human family. To these folks, there is no distinction between grand and not grand. Emotional pain is what it is, and it treats us all the same – it hurts.
Trade in the day – Invest in your life
