Sandy

I am having profoundly conflicting feelings about the super storm, Sandy.  Anger at the news coverage, which makes an awful situation worse by further dramatizing everything (as if it isn't bad enough). Anger at the helplessness I feel due in part to my physical challenges.  Anger at our 20/20 hindsight.   And heaven help me, angry at some of the victims who by right, should feel frustrated beyond measure, but who, due to fear of the unknown, are not approaching this with more patience.  It has been less than a week, and one woman looked like she would have an aneurysm because she thought she was going to die from the elements.  And some have died, so her feelings are not without merit though she was making it worse for herself.  I'm an expert at doing that, so I know it when I see it

Then I think about the huge number of people who live in the elements without food, without water and certainly without electricity the whole of their lives.  They are used to it, it’s true.  But our dependency on a crumbling infrastructure is horrifically frightening.   Global warming (yes, Virginia, there is global warming) coupled with the natural changing planet, will bring more and more of these events, closer together.  In the early part of last century and up until the late half of it, when a natural disaster hit somewhere on the planet, millions of people sent millions in relief, as well as volunteers from every part of the globe.  There are now too many fires to put out, and they are coming too fast.

And so starts the blame game.  We have a general election next week, and given the impatience of the people suffering, they will most likely blame those in office and vote accordingly.  As was true with his first four years in office, Obama could not fix what took Bush eight years to destroy.   Clinton left Bush with a trillion dollar surplus, and eight years later, it was a trillion dollar deficit.  Which Obama inherited.  Lord love a duck, he could not turn it around in four years.  Duh.  With almost zero support from either side of the isle (conservative democrats), he is getting far less support than he deserves.  Is he a great leader?  No, I don’t think so.  He isn’t as strong as I thought he’d be.  But then again….no support.   I just don’t want to see the emotions of democrats boil over on Election Day, blaming Obama for a blameless situation.  They can only fix things as fast as they can fix them.

Listen, I grew up in Minnesota where yearly, blizzards would stop the world from going around for days at a time.  Sometimes, without power.  I live in Seattle now, and 1 inch of snow use to make me laugh because everything shut down.  I don’t laugh anymore.  I live on a hill and can’t get down when there is ice and snow.  I remember my first year here, and I had the radio on while I was dressing one morning and heard this list of school closings.  I thought I had a radio station   back home.  I peered out the window and saw nothing.  Not even a heavy dew.  It’s all relative.  Well, not all.

That storm is beyond my imagination.  I think about my meds and what I’d do when the big one hits (earthquake, flood?).  And I’m sure millions of those people ARE in my situation.  G-d bless you, each and every one, sick or well.