For the past few days I have been trying to find a way to speak and write about the tragedy that Katrina wrought. I think that perhaps I can't find the words because it's so hard to describe something so surreal and so unreal.
I cannot fathom the hearthache, the fear, the desperation. I cannot understand how it must feel to lose all that is familiar to you. I don't know how you start starting over.
There is a song by Patti Griffin that keeps running through my mind and I think it in a way sums up how many of us must be feeling. Helpless and sad and guilty. Helpless because we don't know how to help in a tangible way. Sad for those so lost and alone. Guilty for sunny skies, warm beds and safety. I am just going to let her lyrics do the talking:
When It Don't Come Easy
Red lights are flashing on the highway
I wonder if we're gonna ever get home
I wonder if we're gonna ever get home tonight
Everywhere, the water's getting rough
And your best intentions may not be enough
I wonder if we're gonna ever get home tonight
If you break down, I'll drive out and find you
If you forget my love, I'll try to remind you
And stay by you when it don't come easy
Mmmm...
I don't know nothing except change will come
Year after year, what we do is undone
Time gets moving from a crawl to a run
I wonder if we're gonna ever get home
You're out there walking down a highway
And all of the signs got blown away
Sometimes you wonder if you're walking in the wrong direction
But if you break down, I'll drive out and find you
If you forget my love, I'll try to remind you
And stay by you when it don't come easy
When it don't come easy
So many things that I had before
That don't matter to me now
Tonight I cry for the love that I lost
And the love I've never found
And when the last bird falls and the last siren sounds
Someone will say what's been said beforeIt's only love we were looking for
When you break down, I'll drive out and find you
If you forget my love, I'll try to remind youAnd stay by you when it don't come easy
When it don't come easy
-Patty Griffin, Impossible Dream
2004 Almo Music Corp/One Big Love Music (ASCAP)ATO
Records
2 comments:
It's not just losing everything you have, but the deprived conditions the people are currently living in. Our government isn't responding to this properly!
If you read the words to the song, you will see that it mention the long road ahead as well. You will note that it isn't only referring to the loss, but impending change.
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