Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.

Mel Brooks

Two tragedies occured today. I am sure that there were many more, but I want to address just two.

First, of course, there is a the horrible, horrible tragedy that is continuing throughout the Bay of Bengal.

Second, there is the shocking sudden death of Reggie White, one of the all time great American football players. Dead at age 43 of a massive heart attack.

Which is the bigger story in the U.S. news today? Well, on TV, at least on my side of the country, it was Reggie White.

One man. 14,000 dead at least in Asia and one man’s death trumps them all.

I don’t think this is because people don’t care about the 14,000 dead. I think that after a certain scale, events become too big for people to comprehend.

Reggie White? I saw him play on TV a dozen times. I cheered and admired him. When he made certain homophobic comments, I bristled at them. When he apologized, I admired him all over again. When I read this, I admired him all over again.

The death of one man, especially one familiar man, is something people can look at and comprehend.

14,000 strangers? Sad, but hard to grasp. It is too abstract.

I wonder how I would react if large sections of my city were destroyed and thousands of people died? I imagine I would be sad about the individuals who died that I knew, or the places that were destroyed that I used to frequent. I would have a hard time reacting to the news of the deaths of all those strangers.

Don’t get me wrong – it would be horrible and sad and tragic, but it would be hard to comprehend. Hard to feel.

Know what I mean?

In the meantime, I can’t find an immediate link to a disaster relief fund specifically for the tsunami, but here is a link to the International Red Cross. I donated. I might not be able to comprehend it emotionally, but I can comprehend when help is needed.