"Eight hundred people died in an earthquake." I said this to my seven-year-old daughter while she ate breakfast and listened absently to the radio news. I knew by her occasional comments that she does listen to the news reports with some attention.

"That will help with our population problem," she replied.

I paused, momentarily stunned.

I could have attempted to shame and criticize her for the insensitive remark. I can imagine many people in my life who would insist that I must do so. However, I simply said, "Yes."

I paused again, but only for a bare instant before I knew what to say. "The people who died had family who will miss them. Probably some babies died. Probably some mothers."

"Oh," my daughter said, "yes." Then she wrinkled her bottom lip as she does when she feels  overcome with sadness. She does this when a favorite character in a movie dies, such as the sabor-toothed smilodon in the BBC's Primeval the other night. This child of mine is typically quite sensitive.

I didn't intend to add pain to my daughter's life. I didn't plan my words as a morbid moral lesson. Nonetheless, the words had escaped me. "Eight hundred people died in an earthquake" (LATimes.com, March 5, 2010). Perhaps from the simple need to express my own grief when faced with one among countless unimaginable tradgedies.

Yesterday's news reported one thousand killed in the war in Afghanistan (EurasiaReview.com, March 3, 2010).

Or perhaps I spoke those words in an attempt to breathe life into a number in a news radio report-800 lives lost, 1,000 lives lost. One life lost a thousand times.

Sixty people trampled to death during a stamped in an Indian temple (TheNational.ae, March 5, 2010).

Each life lost unexpectedly and tragically brings me back to my father's death. I know loss and grief. During the days following my father's death, my daughter witnessed my tears and withdrawals and tears again. I would not have expected my personal pain to expound so that I now shed tears for countless unknown loved ones of lost ones, but so it does.

One premature baby died from malnutrition and neglect (ABCNews.go.com, March 4, 2010).

The Chilean death toll was reduced from the initial estimate of 800 to only 550. Does that make it less tragic?

My daughter will probably think more about those lost lives. She might even say something about it to me.