Passing the Buck

Somewhere almost too far away to sense winds are tearing trees out of the ground as fifty-foot waves drown barrier walls. From the safety of my house, only a scant 50 miles inland, a strange feeling rushes over me: are those in danger paying the price for my relative safety?

As hurricane Ike was forming in the Gulf only a few short days ago, I was going about my business...working on a brief, an article for a symposium, filling in missing album artwork on iTunes and religiously updating my facebook status, when I stumbled across the first projection for Ike's path...right through my front door. Less then pleased, I called my dad at work and let him know we ought to consider re-stocking our pantry. We have hurricane stuffs, but Dolly kinda cleaned us out and then we got to lazy to the store and buy water to drink when there was a perfectly good stash righ there in our house.

We bought more tuna than any platoon of men should eat...I'm looking at it now in the family room as it makes its own preparations to sit and wait for the next diaster.

Since hurrican Dolly, my hometown and surrounding cities have been suffering - badly. Over 1/3 of the Valley is impoverished [as compared to the 1/10th of the population national average] so natural diasters hit us hard. The wealth and abundance in places like McAllen must try to outshine the unappealing qualities of shacks and shanties inhabited by the immigrant workers and illegal alliens who probably picked, packed, or shipped whatever you're eating as you read this. These areas of poverty are prone to flooding, and since Dolly, our grounds have remained saturated. You may not believe it, but the post-storm mosquito infestation has gotten so bad, we now have confirmed cases of Malaria and West Nile Virus here...as if left Africa only b/c I missed watching House on Tuesdays.

With all this in mind, I was speaking to a dear friend of mine in Houston early in the Ike saga, and the thought suddenly occured to us - how do you pray in this situation???

If he prayed for my safety and my home's protection...what would be the best case scenario in the back of his mind?? In other words, what was it he REALLY wanted? If my friend asked for the hurricane to be otherwise diverted, someone else's life would be in the balance. Just because that life isn't mine doesn't make it less valuable...or does it? Say I prayed for the hurricane to change direction...where would it go? Houston? What if the hurricane shifted North? What if shifted South? What if what if what if...the fact of the matter is prayer, now matter how effective...couldn't make the hurricane go away. It has to go somewhere...

And somewhere it did. I spoke to this same friend yesterday and he was on his way over to his parents' house after work to help his father ready their house - their home - for Ike. He says he's thankful the hurricane was redirected because Houston at least would be less saturated and more capable, in his mind, of handling Ike...we'll see.

As Ike's potential for devestation became more evident, the lesson this teaches about life becomes more evident. I remarked to my father that watching Ike over this past week is like watching an army of the world's most powerful soldiers slowly desend upon your castle - it's like watching your death. And as momentarily scary as that may seem, the inevitability of it all takes some of the edge off. What I mean is, once the hurricane's path was set, you could only do so much to prepare yourself, and then you just had to wait. It will come when it comes, and it's the waiting that's the most difficult. As Dr. Wilson says, "Dying's easy. It's living that's hard."

I've never seen a tornado disappear into thin air. I've never heard of a tsunami disentigrating in air; never known a monsoon to stop in mid pour while still leaving the eco-system balanced. Hail storms do not turn into lemondrop and fruit roll-up parades. Weather patterns dissapate, not vanish. It's one of Newton's laws of motion - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction - forces come in pairs.

Even Jesus, when he ordered the demon[s] Legion out of the man, ordered them into the pig. He didn't smite them into nothingness...when bills come due...they will be paid...by SOMEONE.

I have my tuna, my passport, my bottled water, a truck full of gas, a knife, a first-aid kit, two months supply of medicine...and the weather channel...now I just have to wait...maybe I'll watch something else instead.