(CNN) -- It has become a commonplace that it is hard to comprehend the disaster in Haiti.

If so, and if we hope to provide Haitians with anything like the help that they need, then we must understand where our minds fail us.

One problem that we do not yet face is having our compassion numbed by the sheer magnitude of the calamity. Indeed, it has evoked a deep visceral response, as we see graphic images of individual suffering on a background of mass devastation. When our local tea store is devoting 20 percent of sales to relief and cell phone donations keep pouring in, the scope of the tragedy is mobilizing, not paralyzing.