the stretch

Last week has been crazy in a lot of ways.
I was sitting on the train back to Salzburg when I read the first headline about the blast in Oslo and later on the shooting. You go from celebration(Ruth & Ian had part one of their wedding) to shock and immediately into prayer mode, cause really what else can you do when you hear about such tragic events and the next day you're back at work.
I must have read every little bit of news there was that day and was upset when I read about Amy Winehouse's death. So much talent gone way too young.
Then came the flood of twitter and facebook posts. Comments of all sorts: grief, anger, confusion, etc. People who got really mad how others could be upset over Amy's death when 90 people just died by the hands of some maniac.
It's this stretch we live in - on one hand you have 90 nameless people who die in the most cruel way and on the other hand someone who's lived the last couple of years in a rather self-destructive way, but we all know her.
It is understandable how people can't handle this and lash out at others but I guess we need to understand that life is always like that. There is a food crisis in Somalia and it's only just now that the world listens up and to us in a ridiculously, comfortable first world nation it is so far away and so beyond our comprehension that we don't know what to do with that information.
I know I keep repeating myself, but there are 27 million of slaves in this day and age, more than ever before in history, yet most people will never know about them because it isn't tangible for them.
What about the millions of people that live below the line and have to survive on a dollar or less a day?
Every single life is precious and in that we are all the same. I don't think there is anyone worth more than someone else. In Proverbs it says

Rich and poor have this is common:

the Lord is the Maker of them all.

We define people by how they look, what they do, their status, etc when we should really understand that we are worth more than we could ever imagine to the One who created all.
Every person is priceless and valuable. Be it one of the Norwegian students, a passerby when the bomb exploded or Amy. I pray that we will mourn with them all, the nameless and the famous x