Adam's night

Successive bomb blasts..
Himachal Pradesh Stampede..
Train accidents ..
And on and on..

I am reminded of a poem that I came across in my school. I think it was one of John Keats' - about Adam's fear of the night and his comparison to our fear of death. Keats was trying to convince the reader that our fear of death is as silly Adam's fear of beautiful star-lit night. He was trying to convince the reader that there is beauty in pitch darkness and absolute stillness, a form of peace bestowed forcefully after a few hours' uproar.

But what about the fear of causing someone's death or shock / sadness upon hearing someone's death?

When we hear about the news of various mishaps for the first time, it shakes us a bit initially and then as more and more of these keep coming, we take it in the stride, thanks to our adaptive mentality towards news that affect us not-so-personally. In some sense, it has got to be there. The power to shrug the bad things off our back and move on is needed. But have we reached a point where we pay scant attention to the pains of our race, save those blessed souls who rush to volunteer help? Have we reached a point, where the pain of a fellow human being affects us not? Are we turning cold to the suffering and appeals of help? As if nature's punishments are not enough, we create our graveyards with bomb blasts and what-nots.. Have we total disregard for human life's value, if not just about any form of life? I feel we are slowly and steadily getting there. And this is something that should be of concern to many. In some way, this is a fear that should exist in each one of us - the fear of shedding the tender feelings in the wake of a hurried life. Keats cannot justify the lack of this fear.

Of late, I feel assured when someone feels disturbed upon hearing a second person's pain.

Fear of death is silly, it happens to every one of us and thankfully, it does happen. But dying because someone induced death is not so silly and the fear for self is universal. This triggers our basic instinct for survival causes us to be on alert and dubious of each other - creating zillions of islands out of one single human race. We are specks in the whole scheme of things but we act as if nothing else matters.

Will we reach a state where we feel moved over poignant suffering of any living being - beyond geographical boundaries, beyond races and religions and zoological classification?