+ 54 - 4 Days to Boarding Flight to Europe

It is just 3 days till we get in the car and head for Dallas.  Today we did about 95 % of our packing.  One more run at the electronics bag and the bathroom bag will be the end of the task.  And the bags are packed to the seams with clothing for 27 days.  So much clothing and still the closet is full.  Shoes on the shoe racks.  And we are taking 125 lbs of clothing and another 50 of electronics and bath items.

Lange's 1936, Migrant Mother,Florence Owens Thompson

As I am writing this post we are watching a documentary about another photographer, Dorothea Lange.  Her photos of the depression and dust bowl migrations were influential in helping the nation see the plight of the humans.

Later, she worked for the military photographing the Japanese interment camps of WWII.  She had started our in San Francisco as photographer of the wealthy of the area.  Her work on the depression and dust bowl were under the government programs created under FDR.

The photos and documentary made me realize the migration from the troubled middle eastern countries is not really that much different than running from the depression's lack of jobs.  Or the grit of the Dust Bowl of the American prairies in the 1930's.  The trauma of being uprooted is bad enough.  I cannot even imagine adding the trauma of war to that life disruption.  The loss of possessions, loss of income, often loss of hope.

And I sit snugly on my sofa.  In the comfort of a modern apartment.  There is food in the pantry.  There is a man I love within easy reach.  My knee continues to heal nicely.  A luxurious trip await us in 4 days.  With plane seats the are a little wider and more leg room for our oversized bodies.  At the same time somewhere in the world yet another family is being uprooted in hopes of just not dying.

I will be accountable for this dichotomy at some point in time ....