Last night I remained so ill, as the migraine pounded on my head, I could not sleep at all, and today I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. Yet my attention was focused on Louisiana and the heartbreak waiting in store.Today as they opened the floodgate I couldn't help but think back to the early 70's - and to Don McLean and his timelessly classical song, "Bye bye, Miss American Pie."
Bye, bye Miss American Pie,About 25,000 people and 11,000 structures could be affected by the oncoming water, and some people living in the threatened stretch of countryside — an area known for fish camps and a drawling French dialect — have already fled.
Drove my Chevy to the levee
But the levee was dry
Those good ol' boys drinkin' whisky & rye
Singing, "this'll be the day that I die.
This'll be the day that I die."
I can only imagine the absolute despair those poor people feel, and wonder how quickly they can recover from total devastation. It isn't easy. People don't realize the hardships they will face, especially those incapable of re-financing, re-building, re-constructing their lives.
I feel overwhelming sadness for people I don't know, will never meet - but I understand their dilemma, and I weep with them and for them.
The second verse of Bye, bye Miss American Pie moves the singer from the 50's of his youth to faith, and concludes with a picture of lost innocent.
In the 5th verse we find,
Oh, there we were all in one place2011 seems to have been such a traumatic year as we keep seeing disaster after disaster destroy the lives of so many people. I would like some of that innocence back. Not only for myself, but for all the baby boomers who have seen their lives twisted into tragedies. Most of us just want to do it all over again - but different.
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again
Praying that far more will be spared loss of their homes than we expected, with zero loss of life. Praying for those who may lose their homes tonight. Praying for peace, comfort and understanding people to help them pick up the pieces that will be shattered.
To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control, that can lead you to be shattered in very extreme circumstances for which you were not to blame. That says something very important about the condition of the ethical life: that it is based on a trust in the uncertain and on a willingness to be exposed; it's based on being more like a plant than like a jewel, something rather fragile, but whose very particular beauty is inseparable from that fragility.~ Martha Nussbaum
