Day 268
While other people are hunkering down out east, in the dark, in the storm of all storms … I am eating ice cream.
Hurricane Sandy came ashore today … I haven’t really seen many pictures yet. I am sure we will be inundated by them along with non-stop coverage and stories over the next few days and weeks. But for now I can only rely on my imagination. And though, hopefully, nothing like it – the images of the tsunami that hit Japan keep replaying in my head.
At times like these … when forces of nature cause catastrophic damage and loss of life … the best and the worst of humanity seems to rise to the surface.
We will, undoubtedly, hear stories of bravery and courage and helping strangers in their time of need … giving of and from the heart, and heroic measures … and we’ll also hear the ones about people taking advantage of others, thefts and looting, and sad selfishness. And then there’s the stupidity.
The early pictures showed people standing feet away from the end of piers with waves crashing around them. Why are people so blatantly stupid? People were pushing baby strollers in flooding streets … not just flooded streets but streets that were flooding. Rising waters! Idiocy. It’s things like this that are so hard to watch. I want to believe that we, as a nation, are smarter than those caught on camera … but when I see these images, time and time again, I begin to believe that maybe we are not so wise.
And it makes me want to move to England … or Brugge … or some lovely little village in the Netherlands where I think people have more sense. I’m good at languages … I could pick some foreign tongue up in no time given an immersion situation! I’d like, at least, to see how difficult it might be!
The Perfect Storm … it’s unnerving when the meteorologists call a devastating storm perfect. I’ve been watching the weather and they keep saying they’ve never seen anything aligning quite like this one … high tides, full moon, winds from the east and from the west all converging on the New York area. Snow, rain, winds, high water. It’s perfect … as in perfectly awful.
Already there has been too much tragedy … the loss of that huge old sailing ship and two of its crew members. It makes me sad to lose such a beautiful ship … let alone for the crewmen and their families and friends. There will be many stories of loss and sadness.
The winds are whooshing around the house tonight. At my old place the winds would come down the trough that the park made and slam into the front of the house. I swear some nights it felt like we were moving from the foundation. But here, there is no place for the wind to pick up enough speed, so it just whooshes around the houses and through the trees and it has an almost ghostly sound to it. And being near Halloween and across from the cemetery, well, maybe it is more than just wind!
In any case … I am glad I am cozy in my home here far from where the storm is lashing. Of course, I wish people well, but know that it’ll be a long time until “things” are anything akin to normal, once again, for so many in that area.
And because of it I think I’ll be more mindful and really enjoy my life right now … which means, I’m off to refill my ice cream!