I listen to the news when I walk after work. I just like knowing what’s going on in the world, and the news gives me something to focus on other than how tired I am of walking in circles.

There was a horrifying segment on mass graves in Iraq. Over 7000 missing persons reports were filed in Baghdad between 2005 and 2007.

Seven thousand civilians have disappeared.

What struck me the hardest was a comment by a man who’s brother is still missing.

“He is not a dead person, yet he is not a living person, either.”

It struck me that this is Schrödinger’s cat at it’s most horrible, and I wonder whether these situations were what Schrödinger had in mind at some point.

Schrödinger lived through both World War I and World War II–and in fact left German because of Hitler. When he created his example of Schrödinger’s Cat, I wonder whether it was the situations of the families after WWI and during WWII that brought this to mind.

How horrible for these families to have no closure. To be living Schrödinger’s dilemma, not knowing whether their loved ones are alive or dead.

And this situation has been repeated since WWII, and throughout history.