The building of a friend of mine burned down last week. No one was hurt, and actually her particular apartment only suffered water and smoke damage, but yesterday when I came over to help salvage whatever was salvagable, I got a great lesson in gratitude.

Everything was covered in soot, ash, pieces of the ceiling, broken glass, and ice (firemen spray water on everything, and then you leave it overnight in Cambridge in December and voila--your stuffed animals are literally frozen to the shelves they sit on). I was there to help, but I (like everyone else) found myself stepping into a room, surveying the damage, and being overcome with a feeling of hopelessness. Where do I start? What do I touch? How destroyed does something have to be in order to give it up? How can I make this awful situation better?

To make it even worse, sometime between Friday (when they were allowed in the building for only a few minutes to grab essential personal items) and yesterday (the first time they were allowed extensive time to actually go through all their lost belongings), someone had broken into the house and looted it. They took a mixer, some blouses and dresses (how much do THOSE go for on the black market?), and took a swig of some rancid drink from the back of the fridge, among other things. I can't believe a child of God would be so cruel as to loot a house that had just burned down. To steal the few things a person owned that were not completely destroyed already. Humanity rarely sinks lower.

Standing and working there in that apartment yesterday, I began to think hard about how blessed I have been. We're trying to cut corners to make ends meet, but at least we have a warm, soft place to sit and look at our miniature plastic Christmas tree. At least my mattress isn't filled with ice and soot. I'm doing everything I can to help my friend, but in the meantime, I'm taking a little more time when I say my prayers.