oh, sun!

Part of me wonders how I can be happy when there is sorrow and war in the world.
Where is our anger? Our indignance? Our sense of right and wrong? How can we go on living, oblivious and uncaring to the death toll, the slaughter and misery that goes on each day? How can we do nothing and still sleep at night?
I asked Pentagon officials: ''How many Iraqis have been killed in this war?''
The reply to my first Pentagon call was: ``We don't track them (Iraqi dead).''

Weeks later I pursued the question and was told by a Defense Department official: ''They don't count. They are not important,'' meaning the casualty figures.

''If the Iraqis laid down their arms,'' he added, ''there was no problem. But if we have to go in by force to kill them, the numbers don't make a difference. It's not something we are concerned with.'' - commondreams.org, 2004

And part of me wonders, how can I not be incredibly happy in this moment, with the sun shining upon my skin? I am the most content that I have ever been, in this moment...
I do not want to feel that helplessness, hopelessness that creeps up when I think. It so hard to speak or move or breathe. What can I do? But I can do something.