FRUSTRATION AND HOPE

Been missing from the blog and other online venues due to buying the latest MacBook Pro and leaving it with my old one in the store for transfer of data etc. Now trying to write on the new one and everything is so small I wanna shoot the screen, and the way I enlarged the type on this blog and my email and other windows doesn't seem to be available in any way I remember... So I'm gonna keep this short and say the message of the day is hope.

My old friend Hubert Selby used to sort of dismiss that concept as too much future oriented when the secret to peace is living in the reality of the moment, even if you want that to change. I guess the hope is in believing that you can change some things. But I mean it more like the hope generated by reality of the moment, including struggles and sometimes triumphs against the ignorant, or the prejudiced, or the self-righteous, or the violent or the unfair.

I mean only days ago it looked like an invasion of Gaza was imminent and then thankfully it was avoided, at least for now and now is all we have. And it looked like the president of Egypt, who seemed to have brokered a ceasefire between Hamas in Gaza and the Israeli government, was following that hopeful accomplishment with a power grab, that he doesn't seem to be getting away with.

And yesterday I was talking with two men who live in my town, one of them lost a car when a tree fell on it from Sandy, the other lost his house in the same storm, but both were grateful to have their families get through all that and more without injury or the loss of their lives.

There are so many fragments of that yellow police tape in my town and my area, it looks like some alien spring with these strange strips of yellow blossoming from trees and telephone poles and street signs where they once blocked a road and now just blow in the wind or droop in the snow or rain.

Did you know that more houses were lost from Sandy in New York state alone than were lost in the entire gulf region that Katrina impacted. Add Jersey and other states to that and you get the magnitude of that unique storm. Let's honor those who lost their lives from it by facing the realities it revealed and working to change what we can to prevent future Sandys or at least the extent of the damage they leave behind.

Life goes on. With or without us. I'm glad to still be a part of it.