In this day and age it is easy to be jaded about the things going on around us. With our own problems to deal with - bills, taxes, insurance payments, we seem to forget or try to overlook the bigger problems that the world faces.

As we seek to insulate ourselves from the issues surrounding our community, our state, our nation, we inevitably get drawn to them.

We seek out avenues that will help us forget, albeit temporarily, our cares and the world´s affairs through TV, films, sports and recreation, etc.

But somehow the issues we turn away from gets back at us through the same channels we turned on to avoid them. A case in point, months ago American Idol hosted "Idol Gives Back" a concert cum fund raising slash charitable event. Admit it or not, most of us watch Idol not because we want to be reminded about the famine in Africa, poverty in America, etc. We watch it because for two hours we get to forget all worldly cares and problems.

Idol Gives Back was a boomerang. It´s most poignant moment, and there were many, was one involving U2 front man Bono´s visit to Africa.

In a scene, Bono was talking to a child clutching a shoe box. A "Memory Box," the small cardboard package contained mementos of the boy"s parents who both succumbed to AIDS. The child showed it contained a rosary, a picture of his mother and a piece of paper. These were all that had reminded him of his parents.

Traditionally, hospitals provide a memory box in cases involving stillbirth or miscarriage and contain various objects belonging to the deceased child. This was to help the grieving mothers deal with their children´s deaths.

The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) initiated a similar practice for parents dying with AIDS. To help lessen the trauma, mothers make a treasure chest of family photographs, letters, stories and history that will allow them to communicate with their children after their death.

As I watched Bono´s interaction with the orphaned child, a tear rolled down my cheek. Because, before I tuned in all I was looking forward to were the performances. And that child, with a shoebox in his hand, reminded me how jaded I have become to the sufferings of humanity. And I´m sure I was not alone during that moment.

As I write this down, I think of that shoebox and what it really represents. A mother´s life memories may be stored there; a reminder of her legacy to her children. But in a global sense, it could also represent mankind´s indifference to the AIDS epidemic. The more memory boxes are made could mean the more jaded we have become.