Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Hurricane Katrina left us with a familiar sinking feeling: David E. Crosby
Published: Thursday, August 18, 2011, 8:09 AM
By Contributing Op-Ed columnist The Times-Picayune
Maybe I am alone in associating all swirls with the giant swirl that changed our lives, but I don't think so. Just a couple of weeks ago a friend experiencing fresh emotional trauma said, "Maybe it's a result of Hurricane Katrina." And another friend noted that the newspaper seems to publish more obituaries now than before the great deluge. And a third friend chronicled for me the dramatic change in his life that happened through recovery work.
It's been nearly six years, folks -- six years. Time must have folded back on itself. Or maybe Katrina has become a perpetual presence stretched like Saran Wrap over my life. It doesn't feel like the distant past. It doesn't even feel past. It feels like nausea from bad eggs for breakfast just this morning.
Dealing with Katrina hangover seems silly. "Get over it," our friends in other places advise us. We would if we could. Who wants to always be looking for that brine line on fences and columns? Who wants to drive down the street counting the orange Xs still glaring at the world?
...
Maybe that is Katrina's real legacy -- the feeling -- no, the knowledge -- that we are not in control. We do not control how life will turn out or even how August will turn out.
Full text:
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2011/08/hurricane_katrina_left_us_with.html
Published: Thursday, August 18, 2011, 8:09 AM
By Contributing Op-Ed columnist The Times-Picayune
Maybe I am alone in associating all swirls with the giant swirl that changed our lives, but I don't think so. Just a couple of weeks ago a friend experiencing fresh emotional trauma said, "Maybe it's a result of Hurricane Katrina." And another friend noted that the newspaper seems to publish more obituaries now than before the great deluge. And a third friend chronicled for me the dramatic change in his life that happened through recovery work.
It's been nearly six years, folks -- six years. Time must have folded back on itself. Or maybe Katrina has become a perpetual presence stretched like Saran Wrap over my life. It doesn't feel like the distant past. It doesn't even feel past. It feels like nausea from bad eggs for breakfast just this morning.
Dealing with Katrina hangover seems silly. "Get over it," our friends in other places advise us. We would if we could. Who wants to always be looking for that brine line on fences and columns? Who wants to drive down the street counting the orange Xs still glaring at the world?
...
Maybe that is Katrina's real legacy -- the feeling -- no, the knowledge -- that we are not in control. We do not control how life will turn out or even how August will turn out.
Full text:
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2011/08/hurricane_katrina_left_us_with.html