Hurricane Ike
Julie and I have our power again after several days in without following the wake of Hurricane Ike. It’s nice to have power, but we actually enjoyed the quiet and the cool breeze from the cool front. There are so many simple pleasures that we miss out on in our modern world.
My parents didn’t fare too badly either, nor did my sister or aunts and uncles. My grandma, however, lives right in the middle of Bridge City. Like almost sevent-five percent of BC, her house had at least four feet of water. My dad said there were dead fish, dead alligators, eels, sewage, crude oil, mud, and other things among all the devastation. I couldn’t believe it. My dad and his brothers along with some others are trying to help those less fortunate.
Another uncle lost his beach house on Boliver peninsula, and it was this that triggered a long memorized portion of John Donne’s “Meditation XVII”:
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were. Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
I’ve been encouraged by the reports of so many trying to help one another out, not relying on the government and not complaining. Yet still many complain about the slowness of getting power or people filling up several gas cans “for their generators.” So many selfish people…. What has happened to America? How do you know that those filling up gas cans aren’t getting gas to fuel their team of high school kids with chainsaws or carrying gas to those trying to clean up more remote areas? My cousin and I will be stocking up on water, ice and gas for the weekend, as our dads run out.
This is not a time–nor really is any time–for selfish whining. If you find yourself complaining, take a look at those who tirelessly give of themselves to help their neighbors. Emulate them, don’t wallow in your discomfort. If you’re too hot to sleep, hours of manual labor will help you forget anything about heat. And you might just learn something about love, for “if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
Tagged as Hurricane Ike + Categorized as Thoughts