Waiting for Rita

In a year with many bad hurricanes, I find myself waiting for the landfall of potentially the biggest of the year. And it's hard waiting.

It's one thing to watch the devastation from Katrina and be moved. You would have to be very hard-hearted indeed to not be moved by the plight of the residents of NOLA whose lives have been devastated by Katrina. Even now, several weeks later, as Katrina is pushed out of the headlines by the 'next big thing', those residents are very far from a return to normalcy. And their stories continue to be heart wrenching.

At yet, it is easy not to dwell on them continually. For most of the US, the devastation did not affect us. Even during the life wrenching plight of others in our own country, life can and does continue on. It is easy for all of us to forget that lives are still broken in LA. Most of us have not been to NOLA and do not have family there, so the affect is only tangential. It's a sad commentary on us as humans, but if we continually dwelt on the all the devastation in the world, we would walk around unable to function.

Yet, as we wait for Rita to hit, the potential for devastation hits home. For in this case, I have been to Galveston and do have family there. My brother and his family are right now on the road, fleeing northward from the approaching winds. And they leave behind everything except family, pets, and those few important articles that fit in their vehicles. Hopefully, Rita will die down and there will still be something to come back to. We'll deal with that together, later.

As for now, we wait. Chris, Kim, Samuel and Benjamin, We're all praying for you and waiting together.