If Only There Were More Stravs!

Just when I thought there can't be anymore tears left in me, Strav at http://stravinskyss.blogspot.com/ brought them all flooding again.

I am so moved by his courage to pack up and leave to help the tsunami victims in Sri Lanka. It takes a very brave person to have the stomach to face such a wide scale human tragedy.

I am truly ashamed of myself as I shy away from "emotionally charged" situations. I try to put on a brave face when I know deep inside that I am a sucker and a cry baby.

Since you don't know who I am, I can spill some beans.

Some of the situations I always AVOIDED are paying condolences in person to people when someone dear to them passes away. Like, I can do it over the phone or by cable (yes! those things from the past still exist!), but I cannot come face to face with the grief of knowing that a dear one has ceased to exist.

I try to get away from it. I even fudged it and skipped my grandmother's funeral by missing my flight and not coming back to Bahrain until the whole mess was over.

I know this is scary. I admit I am a coward.

2004 was the first time in my whole life where I had to sit through the three days of a condolence meeting for a dear one, whose life was claimed by cancer. I can still recall it all so vividly like it happened yesterday.

I haven't seen anything more painful. Yes, we had known for some time that she was going, it is just that we didn't expect it to happen so soon.

There are other embarrassing shameful moments in my life, but I will leave that for later. I don't want to lose all credibility all at once.

The fact that Strav has gone out of his way to help the victims is commendable. I wish I had the strength and courage to do so.