thinking

I actually had the thought, “What am I going to blog about today?” My day was uneventful and the thought that I would need to then leave my house and create a little chaos in order to blog about it popped into my mind. And then, I turned on the TV just in time to catch the President calling the devastation in the south, one of the worst natural disasters in our history. He then went on to list the manpower and the supplies (ice, water, blankets, generators…) that will be sent to those in need. As he talked, scenes from flyovers were being shown. The areas are either flattened and destroyed or they are a lake of standing water. I can’t wrap my brain around it. I’ve lived through a Hurricane and a Tropical Storm in the last 2 years. While Hurricane Isabelle downed trees and cut power and closed schools for a week and while Tropical Storm Gaston came ashore while I was in the Isle of Palms and then followed me to Richmond to flood downtown and kill 8 people, I can’t even fathom what life is like down south. And it’s so surreal because when such big hurricanes hit, we usually get a bit of them, at least some leftover thunderstorms. And we’ve had nothing from Katrina. Life has just continued, my alarm clock has woken me up each day, my car has gotten me to and from work, and the sun has been shining. To say I feel for these people is trite. To say I want to give money and help is not enough. Right now I feel a lot of guilt, not unlike I did after 911, that the best thing for me to do is to live my life and do my job and not take any of it for granted. It’s hard not to want to stop my life and suffer with them. It’s difficult to compartmentalize their whole lives, their whole communities, to my after work news clips. And none of it is fair.