When I can sit in front of a browser and read about events all over the world, it's easy to habitually distance myself mentally from events geographically distant. For example, I'm probably more startled by the near-bombing of De Anza college, 40 miles away, than the Columbine Massacre a thousand miles away.

I just went downstairs to buy some milk, and the kid in front of me was buying a calling card to call India. His mom was visiting there and he hasn't heard from her since the 7.9 quake there several days ago. He thinks she's all right, as her itinerary put her several hundred miles from the epicenter, but it's sort of a reality jolt.

It's like the EgyptAir crash about a year ago: I was shocked and saddened, but it hit me in an entirely more real way when I found out that, save for a miscommunication by a travel agent, my grandfather would have been on that flight, instead of the same flight the next week...