Worse cases...

As a professor, I've taken a perverse delight in spinning out the worst case scenario for a situation with international conflicts in order to drive home the importance of knowing what is going on in the world for my students. Normally, it doesn't come to pass, we breath a deep sigh of relief. 

It gets their attention. It makes it relevant and it makes an impact. 

But today as I was frantically reading through the news on line and watching CNN International, I looked at James, and said "for all the years I've studied the Caucasus, and as much as I love this region, watching this is like the worst case scenario come to life."

He nodded solemnly and said "yeah. . . it really sucks."

Or as I said to my mother, it reminds me of watching the 9/11 attacks, but no one else really aware of why this is so tragic. 

Perhaps I'm over dramatizing. It would be nice to know I am.