Out of The Area
Ferfe made an interesting point in the comments section below: The rest of the country's having a worse time adjusting to these hurricanes than her hurricane-prone neck of the woods. Pace yourself. I think that those of us getting slammed every week are handling the storms better than the rest of the nation.
So now I have a theory--Disasters are like visits to Sick Relative Land. If you're a grown up, you've likely been to that place, when something happens to someone you love. It's often far worse to be waiting for a phone call a thousand miles away, than to be right there, sitting in the hospital or nursing home room. Far away from the scene, you imagine the worst and can't do a damn thing about it.
There's the same "jump in the car and go" instinct at work too. You get the call when someone has had a stroke, a heart attack, an accident. Rather than waiting to find out if you're needed, you just get in the damn car and drive. See? The whole country is just like a bunch of relatives. They hear the bad news, expect the worst and just want to get there and see if everyone's all right. **
Here's the sad part. If the misery lasts too long, eventually they are going to stop jumping in the car. They'll burn out on those phone calls. They'll get impatient when the subject comes up. The call comes for yet another set back. "I'll get there when I can. I don't think it'll be today."
That's when the sick person dies--or that part of the country drops into the sea.
Okay, maybe my personal experience with chronically sick family members can't really be expanded to fit the Disaster in the USA scenerio, but dang, it fit better than I expected.
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**It is so entirely based on some dim section of the lizard brain. Ever notice that when a relative dies, the instinct is to draw the pack together as soon as possible. Why? We can't bring the person back to life. What's the damn hurry? Doesn't matter. The urge is there. Maybe we're all Aunt Ada Doom. We need the countin' to keep us sane.
So now I have a theory--Disasters are like visits to Sick Relative Land. If you're a grown up, you've likely been to that place, when something happens to someone you love. It's often far worse to be waiting for a phone call a thousand miles away, than to be right there, sitting in the hospital or nursing home room. Far away from the scene, you imagine the worst and can't do a damn thing about it.
There's the same "jump in the car and go" instinct at work too. You get the call when someone has had a stroke, a heart attack, an accident. Rather than waiting to find out if you're needed, you just get in the damn car and drive. See? The whole country is just like a bunch of relatives. They hear the bad news, expect the worst and just want to get there and see if everyone's all right. **
Here's the sad part. If the misery lasts too long, eventually they are going to stop jumping in the car. They'll burn out on those phone calls. They'll get impatient when the subject comes up. The call comes for yet another set back. "I'll get there when I can. I don't think it'll be today."
That's when the sick person dies--or that part of the country drops into the sea.
Okay, maybe my personal experience with chronically sick family members can't really be expanded to fit the Disaster in the USA scenerio, but dang, it fit better than I expected.
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**It is so entirely based on some dim section of the lizard brain. Ever notice that when a relative dies, the instinct is to draw the pack together as soon as possible. Why? We can't bring the person back to life. What's the damn hurry? Doesn't matter. The urge is there. Maybe we're all Aunt Ada Doom. We need the countin' to keep us sane.
It's actually a pretty good analogy Kate.
ReplyDeleteYep. Sounds about right to me, too.
ReplyDeleteI used to live in the Caribbean where hurricanes were common - but the problem is they are still common and getting worse. The last time a full-fledged hurricane slammed into St. Thomas it destroyed all the houses and took every leaf off every tree on the island. Like a nuclear bomb. People who had lived there 50 years packed up and left.
ReplyDeleteI had friends who were totally shell-shocked.
If the climate keeps getting warmer, scientists have warned us the look at the Caribbean for the results. More and bigger hurricanes.
I think it means the end of life as we know it on the Gulf coast and in the Caribbean, to tell the truth.
yeah Sam, it's all scary stuff...
ReplyDelete