laramie

Tigger is curled up on his nipped scratchy-pad, right beside the dining room heat-register.

'Face the Nation' is on, talking about the Indian Ocean tsunamis with Colin Powell.

There's sunshine outside the windows and a dusting of new snow on the ground. There's probably a layer of ice underneath, but I'm delaying going outside to check.

A hundred years ago, how long would it have taken for people in Minnesota to learn about a disaster on the other side of the globe? Would anyone but a few missionaries have felt called upon to do anything about it? If modern communications had no other virtue, they have made us realize how close we are to the rest of the world, and have given us a sense of our power in being able to do something, however little, to help.