I was deeply moved today by the loss of the shuttle Columbia. It's ironic that events like this move me more than millions of people dying in some far off land (although that moves me too, when I engage my imagination), but there is just something about the space program tradgedies that touches a very sensitive nerve. Maybe it's that the space program encapsulates so many of our dreams, our strivings to understand who we are and our incessant desires to rise above the day to day circumstances of life. It's almost as if our hopes in some way rest with our abilities to do great things, to be transcendant, if only for a moment.

I grieve also for the struggling nation of Israel. All the strife that the Israeli's have gone through over the last two years, with the new intifada, and this was to be their one moment of hope, their one bright ray in an otherwise dismal existence. All the nation watched on TV, their hopes and pride once again being blown to pieces. It's really almost too much to think about at times.