The Gift of God

Lately, I have been troubled. I get up each morning; have a shower, get dressed, put on the cologne, put the sunglasses that I bought at a local Target store, the cap that I got at the Indianapolis Grandprix. I get to the bus stop. Sometimes, if I'm out of luck, I will have to wait for 15 minutes for the next bus. I sit down on the sidewalk by the shade of the tree. The benches at the bus stop dont get no shade - very horrible. I open up a book to read - borrowed from the local library. The bus pulls in - not missing the scheduled time by even a minute - and what's more - its air conditioned. The 20 minute cool ride is great and I get to my office. Safe and sound, ready to take down another day. I get to my private cubicle and spring my laptop to life. And there it is - on my Google homepage, I can see the headlines:

At least 117 killed in Iraqi village market blast
At least 179 people killed in Iraq's carnage
Suicide bomb kills over 100 in Iraq
Baghdad car bomb kills 17 at wedding

You know for how long the nonsense has been going on down there? About 4 long years. And it troubles me only now. Why do I get to live my life the way I do, and why is it that Iraq is a little hell?

I don't quite remember what prompted me to search for the meaning of 'Baghdad' today. But when it said, one of the meanings to be ' The Gift of God' - it went, as I always do - Ya, right!!

Why is it the way it is? Why are the US and the UK out there? Why do they want to pull out? Why can't the madness come to an end? Why can't it be like any other place? Why is it a hell?
What can I do about it? News about Iraq has become so common that it will often be discarded without a second look. Its only now that I have begun to look, begun to take interest, begun to care. What more can I do than just read about it? How can I end it?

After those 30 minutes that I spend each morning in my cube, just browsing - my ramp up time, I call it - I get on with my day. Not another thought given to it - not until dinner - watching TV, seeing the brief headlines again on TV, I change the channel!!