The Queensland floods, the Victoria floods, Cyclone Yasi, the Perth bushfires and now another earthquake hits Christchurch in New Zealand. It’s just too much. And these are only the disasters more specific to our part of the world. It is becoming the norm for television news in Australia to have constant coverage of whichever disaster is currently occurring. The same stories are repeated in an endless loop, along with the same horrifying video footage. And it’s just too much. I read the news this morning when I got up, not long after it occurred. But I couldn’t bear to watch the news on the television this morning. I thought I would just wait and watch it on the evening news. When evening rolled around, I still wasn’t ready to watch and I’m not sure when I will be ready. I’ve just been checking online news sources so far and I think that’s as much as I can take right now. Six weeks ago today, it was all that I could find to watch on local television as I lay in a hospital bed after having my gallbladder surgery. I remember feeling it was so difficult to watch and so difficult to not watch. But after weeks of one disaster after another, it’s just too much.