Katrina and the Waves

When I visited New Orleans a few summers ago, I was lucky enough to partake of the good kind of hurricane--the fruity, rummy one that knocks you on your ass pretty damn quick if you're not paying attention (especially if it's a hot day and you're swigging them back like Kool-Aid). But as I look at pictures of the Big Easy this morning, I thank God I didn't encounter any other kind of hurricane while I was there.

In the eternal scheme of things, the emotion and ideas imparted here on Defying Gravity mean little. But if you're reading this today or sometime in the next week, send some positive energy and prayers to the folks in Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast who will probably soon return to homes that have been devastated by wind and rain. They face years of just trying to get their lives back the way they were before Katrina attacked this morning. We might get some rain in Pittsburgh (and we'll probably make it more tragic than it really will be), but nothing compares to the devastation in the south.

Let's hope when all is said and done, those who weathered the storm in NOLA will soon be sitting in the sunshine, sipping hurricanes--the good kind.