I am feeling type of cultural disconnect in the hype about the H1N1 virus. Suddenly, I am wondering if I need to get the vaccine. Six months ago - that thought would not even have occured to me.

Six months ago it was a big deal to get safetly from Point A to Point B. It was exciting when your power didn't turn off randomly in the middle of the day. It was exciting that our water tank was functioning. It was an adventure just to go grocery shopping. And yes, the scare last spring did result in Hondurans wearing masks in the grocery store - but the thought of getting a vaccine so that maybe I wouldn't get a virus I may not every be exposed to? The thought didn't even mention my head - and I was not even that far away from the Mexican outbreak.

Now I am back in Canada - and suddenly I don't have to worry about electricity, water, and safety (at least as much as I did.) So - what else do I have to worry about? What else do WE have to worry about - ah yes - the possibility of getting H1N1. This is not to sound cynical - but when we have the basics that we need for survival, our worries get taken up with other things that others do not even have the luxery of worrying about. This chaos - it seems to only create more noise so that we cannot hear what is truly worrysome: that thousands across the world go hungry every night, millions are without good drinking water, and over half the world lives in fear of personal safety. And here we are worried about maybe getting sick - so we inject our bodies with ....what? What about the millions of people who have no choice but to drink dirty water and expose themselves to who-knows-what. We need to remember what is truly important - and not let the noise of the chaos overwhelm us and make us into people of fear (and inaction) and not people of faith (and action.)

I'm just saying.