February 24th, 2012 in 
“And we rolled right past that tragedy” – Joni Mitchell, Coyote
Joni Mitchell’s song talks about passing a burning farmhouse in the middle of the night and driving right on by.
It’s a year since Christchurch’s tragic quake and about eighteen months since the first shake, in which no-one died. Since then there have been countless ongoing tremors, many significant, much of the city centre has been razed, some hard-hit suburbs have been abandoned or feel it … and in our busy lives we roll right on by.
Including us, in a way. We’ve been here in the bedlam of a trade show in Vegas – with no time to think, as another great song says – and yet late last night, our bellman, a nice guy, quite unprompted, told us how deeply he felt for the people of Christchurch.
I was touched. We have many friends in Christchurch and Lyttelton and we feel for them too.
Back home they observed two minutes silence. We wish we’d been there to take part.
We just want you to know we’ve been thinking of you.
Ian
People who like this post would also like:
