Katrina

As we speak, they are preparing the Astrodome to house thousands of displaced people from New Orleans. It is the talk of the town. Usually I am pretty numb to natural disasters because they have never affected me (yet) and because I am a cold-hearted bitch, but I saw something on the news last night that struck me. Have you ever read the book (or maybe you saw the tv movie with Halle Berry) Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston? Great book. Towards the end of the novel, the heroine and her lover are fleeing from a hurricane and are almost dramatically torn apart. It seems like such a romantic tale, it could never really happen. I mean this is real life. But life doesn't get any realer than a man desperately trying to hold onto his wife as a violent flood slowly tears her away and she says to him, "Just let go. Please. Not both of us. Take care of the kids. Take care of the grandkids." And just like that she is gone. He is on the evening news, tearfully recounting his story into the microphone as he holds his grandchildren close to his skinny, ragged pants-legs. I can only hope to love and to be loved like that.

So I am going home this weekend (hopefully) to gather old clothes, etc. to give to the Red Cross. Please do something for these poor people.
Pray.
http://www.redcross.org/