It took me a long time to realize that I’m not a horrible person for not having extreme emotional reactions to news like the Japan earthquake. I mean, I feel upset. I feel terribly upset, but I don’t, you know, cry or anything, even though I cry at the drop of a hat about little bad things happening to me. For a long time I thought it was lack of empathy for other people’s problems but I realized that that’s not what it was, because I realized that I also don’t usually cry when really really awful stuff happens to me, either. For the big stuff, I think I just can’t completely wrap my mind around it. It’s more of a state of shock than it is one of grief, at least at first. I don’t joke about other people’s problems because that feels sick to me. I can understand that other people might get some relief from joking, but for me it feels wrong. I joke about my own problems, after the intial period of getting comfortable. It makes me feel better about them and it helps other people realize that the subject isn’t untouchable.