Katrina

[Child of the 7th Age]

I am both saddened and touched by what I have seen in Houston over the past week. I live two minutes from the Astrodome complex, which now houses thousands and thousands of refugees. In addition to those who came from the Superdome in the buses, many other families have fled here: and are living throughout the city: some put the number as high as 100,000.

Most people are trying to help by taking in families who need shelter, collecting needed supplies, or volunteering in other ways. I've spent a few days sorting food and clothing, and am supposed to be starting tomorrow with one of the New Orleans charities that has set up shop in our city, helping them with phone calls and data entry on "lost" persons. My childrens' schools--small private ones in our neighborhood--have thrown open their doors and taken in dozens of new students. Some of these youngsters seem alright but others appear to be "shell shocked". I have no other words to describe the sadness that I see in the eyes of some of these newcomers. Saddest to me was an elderly lady who was afraid to leave her cot in the Dome to go to the bathroom. Not only was she afraid that her few belongings might be stolen, but that she would never find her spot again. There were thousands of cots with identical grey blankets that all looked the same to her tired eyes.

It does make me realize how privileged a life I've led. Tragedies of this dimension are supposed to happen "elsewhere", not here in a country that likes to think of itself as the richest and most powerful on the earth. It does give me a new appreciation for one theme that underlies much of Tolkien's work -- how little control we really have over our lives and the extent to which we inevitably fall victim to sad and tragic events that come barrelling down upon us out of nowhere. Tolkien talks about fighting the long defeat. This week, speaking with people who have lost everything, I have some sense of what those words mean.