On a Night filled with Fear and Anxiety About So Much This Hit Me A Little Bit More Than Usual
I live in Florida and as I said in previous posts, every time a hurricane passes us by is a miracle and as I watched Harvey decimate Texas and Louisiana I was in equal parts inspired and appalled by the men and women who joined together to help, taking any bit they had, be it boats or water, time or money, clothing or food… And appalled by those who made excuses for why they could not help, citing the water unsafe as there was no way to know what might be in them or difficulty in securing transportation or any other thing they could pull out of thin air…
Now we face another hurricane and it is poised to hit Florida and I find myself praying that this one passes us by, although that looks less and less likely as time passes. I am watching my neighbors go insane, making runs on drugstores and supermarkets and discount clubs and I don’t know what to say or do about the insanity I am seeing but it is insanity on a grandiose scale or done large…
And I am binge watching some TV shows as I look around my home wondering how I can take all the irreplaceable things in my home in hours if necessary, finding myself overwhelmed by the prospect of even trying to pack that bag. The wedding albums, my ketubah (the Jewish contract of marriage, of which there is literally one in all of the world as those who have signed in, most noticibly my husband and one of the witnesses, have died in the intervening years), the hours of videotapes from when the girls were born and of course the dog and all of his stuff… Do I take my high-school and college diplomas or the… The list goes on and on into perpetuity. Luckily, as much as it might kill me to lose the physical copies of my books, they exist somewhere on the cloud, so though I will lose their physical copies, I can enjoy them again with the digital versions. And so when a cover of this song played on the TV show that is the background upon which I ponder these questions it hit me harder than it usually would… Forever Young
May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.
May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.
May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
May you stay forever young
And now I have to see if I can put my money where my mouth is. Can I believe that as long as my family and I are alive and together the rest of it, no matter how treasured, is irrelevant… I will pray that this storm passes us by and I don’t have to make those choices, but come what may all I can do is my best and hope that somehow it will be enough this time… Although all too often these days it is not…