One Over X News

Hurricanes

Anyone that knows me understands that at times I see the world a little differently. The recent experiences this past summer and fall with the paradigm shift in Florida weather had given me pause to consider what is important in my life.

It should come as no surprise that my family matters most. I could not have made it through those couple of months without my kids. Then again, they were the only reason I wanted to make it through those couple of months. It is funny how that works out. I now understand that somehow my daughters have learned how to play all sorts of card games that I have never even heard of. After the couple of months of power outages I now know how to play them as well. Despite how large a pain in the butt it may have seemed taking them to this and that Girl Scout meeting or function over the years, they learned a lot or useful survivial things. Not only did they learn invaluable socialization skills but they also learned a few card games without which enduring the recent power outages would be much less bearable.

I have learned that for the sake of one’s nerves you really should evacuate when the authorities tell you that you should. Despite curiosity or stupidity, experiencing a Cat 3 storm at landfall is something best left to those stupid enough to do it in front of a news camera. At least they are getting paid for the effort.I have also learned that despite this being a ‘free country’, freedoms can be taken away in an instant for the public good. At my age having anyone tell me when I HAVE to do anything is at the least irritating. I am not certain that I like the fact that my county can impose a curfew but I do like the fact that the police seem very interested in relinquishing their power as soon as the emergency has passed. So maybe that is how our country really is different. They that have the power are really just like us and the authority is used only when it is necessary and in the interest of the safety and security of everyone.

I have seen first hand of how powerful nature can be and as a result I no longer think that I am ‘ten feet tall and bullet proof’, as that country music song goes. I think storms are a little, not-so-friendly reminder that despite anything else, every human really is equal. A storm does not give preference or deference to wealth, creed, ethnicity, sexual preference or any of that. It doesn’t care whether you eat white bread of wheat bread. It doesn’t want to know whether your belly button is an ‘innie’ or an ‘outtie’. It could care less about your Atkin’s diet or how great you were playing baseball in high school. It certainly doesn’t mind removing a few shingles from your roof either, if that is what it takes to get your friggin' attention.

I have come to appreciate electricity more than almost anything else in life except for my kids - that and having hot water to take a shower because I have electricity. It is funny though, I realize now why they refer to electricity as ‘power’. Having the ‘power’ is much preferable to having ‘no power’. However, it is always nice when someone that has ‘power’ offers to share with you in some way, like a well placed extension cord across the street where one side of the block has power while the other doesn't.

I think the strangest and most personally uplifting thing I have witnessed over the couple of months is that emergencies like the storms that this state had suffered brings out the best in some if not most people. I don’t know if it is an American thing or just a human thing - or even if it matters. I am relatively certain that it is part of the overall equalizing factor of an event or series of events like the series of devastating storms. When we are reminded how insignificant each of us is before the forces of nature, we tend to be nicer to one another. When was the last time you volunteered to help a neighbor trim some palm fronds? - Or remove a tree that had fallen in his or her yard? When was the last time you stopped to ask your neighbor if he or she wanted a ride to the distribution center where there was free ice. It happened in Florida last summer and fall, frequently if not daily!

I would not wish the disasters that I have endured on anyone. It is not that I feel blessed or even particularly singled out to have survived. I am grateful to be alive. It is only that I noticed a few things. I think it is just a pity that it takes a disaster to bring the ‘human’ out of ‘humanity’. It is a shame that most of us aren’t a little more human to one another all the time.

posted by Unknown @ 11:58 PM