The day before the year re-boots. School starts, summer slams to a close, and prosaic reality dawns on us all.
In other words, tomorrow is going to suck, as it usually sucks on the first day of school. It will suck like an out-of-control Dyson vacuum cleaner.
But my ephemeral irritations are nothing compared to what is (once again) happening in New Orleans this hour. Hurricane Gustav is, at the moment, ready to bitch slap the mouth of the Mississippi, on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s deadly strike. Two million people have evacuated the area, and far too many memories are bubbling to the surface…including my own.
Take a trip back in time, courtesy of my blog. I remember (with no fondness at all) the incredulity in my tone, as I watched & commented upon the terrible, near-apocalyptic devastation…and the lack of preparation (nee: incompetence) on the part of the richest, most powerful nation on Earth. Officialdom seems (thankfully) far more prepared on this occasion…but only time will tell if perception equals reality.
Damage on top of damage. Scars on top of scars. I try to tell myself that history doesn’t have to be cyclical. But history is written by the winners…and the survivors. Nature tends to write its own narrative, without an agenda…and without pity for the puny humans at its mercy. The “spin” tends to come afterwards, and that’s man-made.
I’ll pray that “Gustav” doesn’t enter the lexicon beside “Katrina”. It’s all I can do. That, and see how long CNN poster-boy and hurricane-chaser Anderson Cooper can last before the gale-force winds blow him and his satellite truck clean out of the French Quarter of the Big Easy.
On that note, I’ll leave with a bit of black humour. The Republican National Convention has downgraded its activities, in response to Hurricane Gustav. It was a sober & sensible decision…and it saved us from a prime time address by President George W. Bush. The English language is once again safe, to fight another day.
You take your blessing where you can find them…
