Wednesday, December 1, 2010

What is it about a national disaster and grief..?

In terms of the writing, I've been a stunned mullet since news of the Pike River Mine disaster. Yet, in the past few days, something within my mourning and my reading of others' grief as well as dealing with the day to day getting on with life of raising a family (of teenagers - Yes! please feel sorry for me) some gold has come through.

Some nuggets of universal truth of life has presented itself. So much so that I've actually gone - whoah. Who said that? Birthright, I predict, will be the book that will be quoted (*author squints and prays*)

It is a story which confronts, smack on, our worst scenarios: unexplained and unjustified death of children, spouses, parents. Disquiet justified or not about the responsibility of those who hold the power. The complexities of relationships and the allegiance to them.

I have shed many tears these past thirteen days - some of them in guilt that I am not qualified to grieve but such is the way the world works, there is never a license on grief.

Every man downed deserves his story to be told. It is my wish that the story-tellers among us grab a hold of them and put their place in the sun.

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