Where to even begin on today? I'm not generally a very serious blogger, but today's circumstances don't leave much room for sarcasm and humor.
We've dealt with so many of the hurricane victims, it's not even funny. People without homes, without money, without any certainty of what the future holds for them. It's just heart breaking. I talked to a lady whose mom died on her 80th birthday in her attic in New Orleans on Monday, a guy who had no clue whatsoever whether or not his parents were alive, one who got separated from her family at the Superdome and still has not been able to find them again, countless others who had lost everything they owned in the world but were so thankful just to be alive. All of them have lost something; most have lost everything but the clothes on their backs.
I keep praying to God just to give me the words to console these people, but seriously, what do you say? I'm so sorry just doesn't seem to cut it in a situation like this, ya know? I try to put myself in their shoes to get some perspective, but I don't think I can even fathom the tragedy that they've been through, and what is still yet to come. Thousands dead in New Orleans alone; hundreds dead in Mississippi. Total destruction throughout. Disease beginning to spread throughout the water. It's like a scene from a sci-fi movie or something...definitely not the same place where we drank hurricanes while walking the streets, listening to jazz music and watching street shows. Bizarre. That place used to be larger than life, and now it's a war zone with looters actually shooting at relief hellicopters today.
I guess times like these bring out the best as well as the worst in people, huh...