How can you have Joy when your neighbor has Loss?

I'd had a normal day today. Kinda slow. I did a disability evaluation and a psychotherapy session, wrote up a couple of reports, got a large payment from a former client that I thought would never pay me, paid some extra bills, ran by the grocery store, went to the pet store with Sandy to buy a car harness (best $35 I've ever spent on that dog), and drove home. As I approached my home, I saw no fewer than 10 emergency vehicles including at least six long bed fire trucks (you cannot see all the vehicles in the above picture; they went down two different side streets and extended behind where I stood; this is the view from our home). Overhead flew a couple of news helicopters. My heart started to race.

The road was blocked off and I wasn't able to drive to my home. I couldn't tell whose home had been on fire, but mine was certainly a realistic possibility. My heart raced and my eyes started to tear. I asked someone standing by and got the impression that it probably hadn't been my house. I parked, got the dog out, and walked toward my home.

It wasn't ours. And, I exhaled with relief and joy, but the very quick feeling that followed was wondering how can I feel joy and relief when a tragedy has happened to my neighbor? (It was not anyone on my cul-de-sac, but the home is only a few homes away). My relief was because the tragedy was not mine, but someone else's. That isn't joy.

So, extend that. Where does someone become not my neighbor? One block? Two blocks? Different subdivision? Different zip code? Different city? Different county? Different state? Different country? When is someone not my neighbor?

My religious belief tell me that all are my neighbors. And, if tragedy and pain occurs to "the least of these" and all that, then they occur to all. It brings to my consciousness how so many tragedies throughout the world occur to people who are my neighbors. It just feels so overwhelming, so I shut them out and focus on my little family and my little neighborhood.

I find no joy in their tragedy, but I am human and I am relieved and grateful that the immediacy of the tragedy was not mind to manage. Somehow, that feels selfish. Human, I am sure, but selfish. But, I am grateful. And, I am especially grateful that the only loss was material and not life. And, I am grateful for our emergency response personnel.