In the Wake of Disaster

It’s difficult to wrap one’s mind around the kind of disaster that struck the Gulf Coast in the form of hurricane Katrina this week. To me, it’s like an unexpected punch to the gut…you are shocked, staggered, gasping for breath; and wondering, “where did that come from?”
It reminds me of September 11th; I feel much of the same sense of awful shock. I live 24 miles from NYC as the crow flies, and I could smell the remnants of Trade Center burning for a week after that event. Ash floated from postcard-perfect azure skies into my parking lot, and every speck of it made me ask, “Was that a bit of someone’s personal effects?”, or worse, part of their very persons. I walked around feeling like a zombie, shell-shocked, for months… though I know very well, for me at least, life went on as it always did, and I personally put the same face on every day that I always had.
And life will go on for me just the same after Katrina. It won’t for many thousands who made their homes down where she struck. They expect the city of New Orleans to be uninhabitable for months. That’s an entire city! It’s difficult to reconcile the scope of such a disaster with my own life. I’m not one to feel a false sense of guilt over it, but some part of me wants very much to understand, and in sympathy to a great many people’s loss, feel a little bit of it too. But it only can be a little bit – because the human soul simply can’t contain that much grief. When tragedy falls on us personally, something remarkable kicks in, and enables us to cope…but only with that part we have to bear ourselves. When it falls on someone else, those of us watching cannot bear it. We can only let a little in, and hopefully, if we can, ease the other’s burden to some small degree. But we can’t feel what they feel, not ever.
So, in my small way, I grieve over New Orleans, and the rest of the devasted area. In practical terms, there isn’t a whole lot I can do for those folks, but my heart goes out to them. Some money will go out to them too, though it seems like a pitifully meager response. Yet, I saw on my way home from work today a lemonaide stand kind of thing, with a big sgn over it saying “Louisiana Tea.” Two kids stood behind it, and in the front was another sign saying, “Help us help a little.” Indeed…a lot of a little is still a lot.

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