no matter how i try, i can't wrap my mind around the effects of hurricane katrina. the devastation, the pure carnage of it, i simply can't grasp. what i can see are the ripples, the tiny aftershocks: the hungry thousands from new orleans shacked up in the local arena. working with them recently was true joy. it also cast our current predicament in fresh light.

i have family who have evacuated their homes in anticipation of hurricane rita. my brother in law does also, and his family lives directly in the predicted path of destruction. the result: he's going to have 12 extra roomates this weekend. after katrina, we're all wondering whether rita's displacement will only be for a weekend.

i'm rambling. let me get more to the point. you see, i've read and read about the indefatigable human spirit. about the adaptabilities. but in the context of recent events, staring down the barrel of another violent storm, i'm reminded of the fragility.

we, as a race, are weak, puny little rags, aren't we? we're like ants, rather easily swept away and smashed underfoot in the presence of true power. like ants, though, we overcome our fragility through community. individually, we are small and powerless; but collectively, we can adapt and overcome extreme adversity.

you can preach all you want about the "decline of society" - what we, as a society, are allowing is a decline of community. we've not embraced individualism, we've strangled it in our attempt to squeeze every last drop from it.

you can hoard your coins and build your moated castles. you can train your kids in the subtle art of back-turning. you can work to insulate yourself from everyone less desirable than yourself; technology can only help so much, though.

what are you going to do when your storm hits?

        All mankind is of one author, and is one volume;
        when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of
        the book, but translated into a better language; and
        every chapter must be so translated... As therefore
        the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the
        preacher only, but upon the congregation to come:
        so this bell calls us all.... No man is an island,
        entire of itself... any man's death diminishes me,
        because I am involved in mankind; and therefore
        never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls
        for thee.
                                                               -- John Donne