Last night during St. Louis Symphony’s performance of Mozart’s Requiem I bid farewell to Alexander McQueen and gave thanks for prayers answered that the world was spared of the horrors of a disastrous tsuanmi.

By now I am sure I’ve convinced you I’m a Twitterholic and not ashamed to admit it. It’s for now a very useful means of doing research, keeping people apprised of what I am up to, quickly, and getting my news fix, and lots of it.

The past few weeks however have been nearly intolerable. Not because people are unkind: exactly the opposite. If you like or think in big picture terms, however, as I do, sometimes the massive amounts of information that come at you in such short periods of time have you on more than a merry go round as I mentioned a few posts back; it’s more like a roller coaster and one of the biggest and meanest ones around. You’ll come away with more than a case of whiplash.

This morning when I got on Twitter, the news of the earthquake in Chile and its eventual full destruction was just breaking. That alone is horrifying. When you’re sitting there having your coffee and trying to think of quippy statements to say on Twitter, suddenly anything you might want to say seems pretty insignificant compared to what someone in the Southern hemisphere is going through at that same moment. It’s just too unbearable to think about and then ultimately how helpless you feel. I am not embarassed to say, it brought me to my knees.

News of Alexander McQueen’s death by suicide is still pretty fresh in my mind, even though it seems like eons ago….and of course we know the Haitians are still in hell and fighting like hell to get through whatever hell they’ve been through and are now in trying to get out of. God continue to give them strength and supplies.

The Olympics in Vancouver have conspired to be a part of the drama with the death of the Georgian in the Luge competition to begin with, but then we’ve got the lovely but heartbreaking story of the Canadian skater whose mother died 4 days before her competition where she showed a near Herculean strength to go on to win a Bronze medal. Thank God for Apolo Ohno and his unrelenting high spirits which he has been freely sharing while tweeting to his many fans.

And how can we forget the domestic terrorism from one of our own with the pilot who kamakaze like flew his airplane into an IRS building. Those of us on Twitter were made aware of the suicide note that he put online, but taken down in a few hours. Like Alexander McQueen’s twitter account was taken down very shortly after the announcement of his death.

People get to (and have to) react pretty quickly today because we are hearing about these things as they happen and sometimes at the same time. I am reminded of the riots in Iran. Innocently in a way you are on Twitter to do a job, at least I am trying to, and sometimes you just have to stop and get off in order to somehow square the mindbending events that have infiltrated your brain in the span of sometimes only a few hours. It can be like watching 4 of the worst horror flicks imaginable on different sets, all at the same. Why would you ever want to do that to yourself?

One thing I can say right now is that I wish I were John Travolta and could call my friends in high places and fly my own plane in to do some rescue work somewhere, anywhere in the world that it was needed. That was almost a Superman act on his part for the Haitians, one we are all grateful for. But then we are all doing what we can, when we can, with what we have.

Today though, no matter what I do, it just doesn’t feel like it’s enough. Prayers for the moment are the best thing I have at my disposal. And right now, on Twitter, that is what many are doing. So today especially I am going to believe in the power of the group and know that all those prayers and uplifting thoughts being sent to Chile will in someway, somehow make some difference and help give people the strength to get to safe harbor so they can help their loved ones or others in distress.

God bless, my thoughts and prayers are with you people of the Southern Hemisphere and on the Pacific Coast. Know that right this minute, I wish I could make it stop,now, and am praying that it will.

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