ABSTRACT
As I was contemplating what I might write on the subject of how we explain misfortune, the flow of those thoughts was halted by a CNN news broadcast that described, with incredible detail, the extent of death and destruction caused by hurricane Katrina, along the southern coastal regions of Louisiana and Mississippi in the United States. Eight months before, the world had witnessed the destructive power of a tsunami that decimated parts of Indonesia, Thailand, and India, killing thousands and leaving tens of thousands homeless. In our recent memory, we can recall the events of 9/11, assassinations of political leaders by terrorists, hijackings, deaths by famine, deaths by protracted wars between countries in Africa, or the Near East, or Southwest Asia. The list of horrific events in human history is long and the emotional memories that we have stored as a race continue to haunt us even now (Pillemer, 2004).
