Innocent Questions

Last Saturday, I sketched an early morning winter forest scene. It was colder than I'd dressed for and in an hour, I was retracing my steps for home. I stopped however, when I discovered a dead raccoon along the nearby road which the melting snow had revealed .

The Charles River in flood
03-13-11, blue china marker on paper

The river is very high now and has risen over its stone retaining walls below the dam. Waves gently flow over the grass. I'm used to seeing the water moving swiftly within the channel; with the high water, the waves are light and one hears hear a gentle lapping sound in addition to the roar of the steady torrent. It's just a small  distinction to be made.

This tiny observation, combined with the raccoon corpse seen the day before (a victim of a snowplow?) I'm reminded of the images coming out of Northern Japan. Indeed, the whole world it seems, offers up a fresh crop of innocent sacrifices from the latest source of violence and catastrophe. We would never wish such calamities on any living person, thing or beautiful place. Why must it be so? Why?