Calling All Humanitarians...

So folks, I know it’s been a while since I last blogged, a little more than a week but things have happened.  First, work decided to wallop me upside the head and make me its slave reminding me of that old song lyrics ‘she works hard for the money’.  Yea, well I’ve ever last darn red cent, I’ll tell ya what! Second, Eid-ul-Adha arrived in a glory of goat guts and family time and plenty of yummy food.  And then to top it all off, we’re welcoming Sandy into our shores.  Not only welcome, hell we’re embracing her (even if we don’t want to) in panicked fury of water, bread and tuna can gather-ing, laying bare all grocery shelves.  I had half a mind to take a picture of my local grocery store and it’s craziness but I was too busy getting bread *winks*

Most of you probably already know what’s happening here on the east coast of the USA, and if you don’t, seriously crawl out of your caves.  This is pretty nerve wrecking stuff.  We’ve been through a few hurricanes before, I recall staying up all night peering outside at this gigantic tree I was sure would topple onto our house back during Hurricane Isabella, but this…this thing is a monster.  And yes media did its part in instilling a serious sense of mania but at the end of the day I’m glad because we east coasters tend to be know-it-all arrogant gits who think nothing can touch us…um year right.  So sure we were running around like chickens sans heads but shoot that at least saved many lives and kept people out of the way.

This is what we’d been hearing…3 storm cells converging to become one of the biggest hurricanes to ever hit the east side of the country.  Okay, I don’t know about y’all but this fact does not give me the warm and fuzzies at all.    I keep having flashbacks to that disaster movie “Day After Tomorrow”, you know the one with Denise Quaid who predicts extreme weather due to mankind’s negligence of the environment…global warming at its best.

Naturally the fact that this thing, Sandy, is bearing down on us and that the focus is going to be NYC/NJ makes me slightly relieved for myself but still plenty frightened for those who will face the wrath.  Truly my prayers are with anyone experiencing this for themselves.   Let me tell you, this is not fun folks.  I don’t care who you are or where you are, the fact is any natural disaster is not fun.  Some people down in Florida or Texas are probably laughing their butts off and wondering what the hell the big deal is, they’ve been through worse with much more aplomb and a lot less fuss.  But I think that those people fail to understand that this situation is very bizarre for us.  We’re frankly not prepared for something on this scale and when you couple our arrogance with a densely populated are full of glass and sea level living…well “hello FEMA”.

1000 miles round this thing is bearing down on us with a growl and like the big bad wolf, it’s intent on blowing us little piggy’s houses down.  Right, I’ll write more later because I need to go stand dangerously close to a window K

Okay so now here I am post storm and I am happy to report that my home is safely still on its ground soaked foundation, basement excess moisture free and miracles of miracles, none of my family managed to lose electricity.  That in itself is a stupendous awe-inspiring fact.  But for all the blessings of course I’ll have to find something to complain about.  We did manage to lose our internet and cable.  Hello…has anyone ever had this happen?  It’s TERRIBLE.  I mean cripes it’s like being blind in the dark with a blindfold in a knife factory with exposed sharp edges (dramatic, ain’t i?).  How the heck did we live without such luxuries before?!?!  Good thing in such emergencies my brain functions in panic but reasonable mode and therefore I remained glued to my phone piggybacking off wifi for the rest of the night.  Crisis averted.

But waking up the next day I realized two things once my cable was up and running:  first, our house is (mashAllah) sturdy and we were damn lucky.  Second, Sandy, although not as damaging in the DC/Balto metro areas as originally predicted, had packed quite a punch and had created all sorts of havoc (I learned this of course as soon as I was reconnected) further north. 

I watched in horror and fascination as I saw towns drowned, the very familiar and beloved Atlantic City boardwalk torn to shreds, pictures of NYC’s subway tunnels submerged in salt water and people on the streets looking resigned.  Mayors, senators, congressmen, the pres were everywhere showing sympathy, surveying damage, at least appearing terribly sad and giving hope to those who needed it more than anything else at that point.  I clicked onto FB and saw funds being raised for victims of the hurricane.  I heard on news radio as I was on my way in to work today where one woman said to the senator of her state ‘Senator, I’ve lost everything’.  And imagined what it would be like to utter those words and mean them.  Let me assure you how vehement my prayer of thanks to God was at that moment. 

And this is the realization that came to me, the thoughts I truly want to share:

Seriously people, let’s focus on our blessings for a change, can we?  I mean okay so the elections are going on here in the states (which is seriously unavoidable and rather exhausting) and it’s hard to find something good when all that’s being rammed down our throats are nothing but negatives.  I mean heck I wonder if anything positive has happened in the last 12 years K  because as far as the politicians are concerned, nope, not a damn thing.  Sure they talk about recovery or making things better, giving Americans food for political thought as campaigned after disgusting negative campaigned abound everywhere stuck to our doors, littering our lawn, bombarding our television watching…but here’s the thing, sometimes, just sometimes can we focus on other things?  Argue with me that this is important, the election of our next president is very, very significant and I won’t disagree but this is not the end all and be all to our existence right now.  There are other things happening.  This is just but a part of what is going on in our day-to-day lives, right?  Am I mistaken? 

Like, for instance, can we focus on the fact that we were given wonderful beating caring squishy hearts and thus should be able to utilize it bye allowing to feel pain and sympathy for our fellow human?  Can we cross over borders and boundaries?  Can we leap over political alliances and forget confusing facts and figures to only concentrate on the hurting and misery on our neighbor?  This storm wasn’t just a simple ‘superstorm’ it was in fact (for me if not for anyone else) a reminder that there are bigger things in the world to worry about other than which president we’ll be voting into office and who is lesser of the two evils. 

Let’s agree on one thing, November 6^th will be here sooner than later whether we like it or not, and someone (either it be Obama or Romney) will be voted our next Commander-in-Chief and that person will take office, simple.  The other straightforward fact is that our day-to-day lives will not change immediately post-election, it will not alter, and it will not become either fantastically awesome or stupendously bad due to the man in the oval office.  Life will, for the most part, actually remain the same.  Most of the political issues that we are concerned with today will slowly manifest itself with time, not instantly.  And if you think otherwise, sweethearts go smell the varnish and wake yourself up.  Oz isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, in case you didn’t realize and the Wizard was a short man who stood behind a curtain and talked in a very booming intimidating voice and blew a lot of smoke.  Hello, sound familiar?

Anyhow, focus folks, really focus.  Stop worrying about what Romney said or what Obama did.  How about getting off your tush and going to help someone who needs it?  Lend a hand to the food banks, or help a fellow citizen of the world salvage themselves?  If nothing, log onto some charitable website to give some money to those who at present have nothing (even though I know money right now is tight for nearly everyone). 

Have you ever really given thought to how horrible the word “nothing” truly is?  Nothing, not a thing, nada, zilch, zero, zippo.  I just did a total mental “yikes” at that reflection, how about you?  Do you have the capacity to understand what that concept truly means?  To be able to say that you have not one single thing to your name?  How about this…since the day of the storm, have you stopped to consider for a moment about how it must have felt for those folks who were most affected by Sandy to watch water rush into their homes while they are unable to stop Mother Nature?  Watching possessions being swept away, precious memories being taken from right under their nose and that too not by some thief in the night?  Have you sat and pondered it?  Does the enormity of what they face overwhelm you even slightly?  Does your squishy heart ache a bit?

Yes, of course we can breathe a sigh of relief and mutter thanks to whomever, whatever you wish that you are safe, your family is safe and that your possessions are also safe and that some of us averted the brunt of Sandy’s wrath but you know what, if we averted, someone else shouldered. 

Mother Nature didn’t seem to care about our elections, about the demos vs. the repubs, the rich vs. the poor…no she pretty much declared in a loud and windy bellow ‘I trump you all’ and put us back into our places.  So let’s do that okay?  Let’s focus and elect the darn president and move the heck along…let’s be humans again okay? 

Total side bar:  While you’re thanking your creator (or whoever/whatever) for the blessings that were imparted upon you please do say a prayer for those folks in India who are now facing Typhoon Nilam.  For us in the east, we should have a great bit of sympathy for what they are ‘weathering’ and keep in mind that if we had it bad, they’ll have it worse just considering the sheer size of the poor populace there who live in nothing more than tin roofed homes.