the dumping grounds

Losing a loved one is akin to facing death. In the last year I've lost my childhood dog and my maternal grandmother to death, and my life partner to... I don't know. Just recently there was a surprising death of a lovely woman at work, and the more I look for it, the more I see death abounding. People are dying in Gaza especially this week, in Iraq everyday, in Afghanistan. I check in on these deaths every morning on Al Jazeera, and they create the background white noise of desolation. I may be reducing important differences too much by comparing loss and death; sometimes death seems more like a transition than true loss. But sometimes I fear that this kind of mentality can only really be afforded by those who live outside perpetual war and destruction.