"With a Conscience" - Weathering Storms

"Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray."  - Lord Byron

Hurricane Sandy came and went and left devastation along our precious East Coast.  

So much of New York and New Jersey are in ruins.  Places that I have personally shared so much happiness and joy with loved ones that it stops my breathing. But there's a bigger problem beyond hurricanes and 90 mile winds and it deals with nature, not of the weathering kind but of the human kind.

As the endless, endless, ENDLESS news coverage continued, I could only help but feel that the news was relishing all of their attention on the reporters themselves and paying less and less attention to the human spirit that was dwindling with each ocean wave.   Nature can be cruel. Human beings today are so removed from this fact that they get completely shocked when havoc ensues.  So why do human beings react with the same vengeance? The news was showing the devastation of the storm and the devastation of the human spirit too.  People with their tempers out of control.  Home owners fighting off random acts of pilfering, stealing.  Burglary.  Finally today, the news was showing the spirit of community.  We say random acts of kindness instead of random acts of cruelty.  

I can't help but wonder why when human beings are collectively in the same situation, some respond in kindness, others respond with anger, and irrationality.  Why is there stubbornness instead of selflessness?  Trust me on this one fact-There are plenty of us today saying, "Thank God it wasn't me this time!"  That is a completely human reaction except that this time, the effects were felt everywhere.  Witness, the gas lines here locally. People travelling over an hour or move for gas.  This effected us regardless of whether or not we had a seaside home or not. 

Let cooler heads prevail.  Let us reach out with our common sense and our compassion and understand that bad, bad, BAD things can happen to all of us.  If you live long enough, this rings true.  What matters is that we become problem solvers.  What matters is that we think of the human suffering that very well could be ours at any given time.  What we contribute, what we give outside of our own self-absorbed world, will have more impact than any storm will.

The press, I'm sure believes that they were providing a viable service to the public by broadcasting 24/7 on the perils and the destruction of the this storm. Perhaps there is some shred of truth to their efforts but for this New Yorker, I would have much rather seen them out there helping the elderly, the poor, those who had no one to go to for help, than reporting on some beach, almost getting wiped away...Ridiculous, useless and not at all informative. If the press really wanted to be helpful, they would have emphasized what our governors and mayors were saying all along..."Keep your cool.  Remain calm and work with us.  Relief is coming but it will not come overnight.  We will be there.  We will persevere.

As my husband was preparing the generator for the storm, he looked at me and said "I am getting this thing ready and we'll probably not even need the thing."  He was right.  We were spared...We were spared this time.  It could always, be us.  It could always be you.  Be ready.  Be kind and think of others.  This is our moment here in the East Coast to show how it can be done.  

Ok now...kids...You are allowed to wish for snow days.