Long Term

The long-term effects of Katrina are going to be harder to deal with than the short-term, I think. People can be hospitable (even if it's not radically hospitable) for a week, a month, maybe even two. But I really think this- this evacuee/refugee status of people, the rebuilding, restructuring, everything involved- is going to take much, much longer. And the psychological effects are going to be difficult to quantify, much less actually deal with.

I am ashamed to think about how short of a time I really prayed for people after September 11th. It rocked our world, and we all felt it. But I was just far enough away to be able to get back to "real" life in a pretty quick time. I don't know how long it takes to get back to "real" life if you have been in the thick of something like that. Is there anything other than "real" life, every moment, every day, in every situation we are in? "Normal" might be another word to use, but when does everything become "normal" again for the people who are intimately affected?

Of course JRB and I are not truly affected by this storm- we were on the fringes, but it has made me more aware of the need to continually listen to people and their needs. And it is important for people to see that life continues in all forms after a huge event, even if they don't understand how others can do it.

So, I am convicted to pray- pray for the people affected by Katrina, by September 11th, by the Rawanda genocides, by Apartheid, by the Holocaust, by Slavery, by anything and everything.