Enduring, By Being An American

THE CITY OF CENTRAL, LOUISIANA, in central Louisiana, was, quite recently, quite underwater. Twenty five thousand of its twenty seven thousand citizens lost their homes. The houses, for the most part, still stand, but are no longer inhabitable. Too much mud, mold and mildew, too few salvageable possessions. Down the road, the town's besieged mayor sits in his makeshift shopping mall office, unsure what to do next, wearing a T shirt which defiantly asserts: "we stick together, come hell or high water". In this case, both, simultaneously. He says he hasn't the foggiest idea what, precisely, his town is going to do to restore itself, but is not concerned. He knows it will do something, and that something will be whatever is required. The return to full municipal health is a process which, through sheer determination, has already begun. Meanwhile, all across America, signs of awakening energy begin to sir, sluggishly at first, then with gathering force, as it always does when disaster strikes elsewhere. Though sometimes slowly at first, America always responds, as a growing avalanche of love and material necessity takes form, and begins to move to where it is needed. The wave is even now beginning to flow into town, a hastening mass of people and material help, which, if not organized and tempered, will result in more new housing than can ever be utilized, and more cheeseburgers, toothpaste, bottled water and toilet paper than can ever be consumed. If they're not careful, the good people of Central, Louisiana will begin to put on weight, in America's excessive, exuberant generosity. When America goes, it goes big. The mayor asks what a ninety year old man, who has lost everything, will ever do to start over. The answer, of course, is that he will not start over, because he cannot. What he will do is resume, doing what he can, with what he has, which will soon become much. We can never truly star over, its always too late for that, but when the spirit endures, as it will, we endure, and we proceed. And besides, our ninety year old neighbor has one great advantage in his quest to endure, for after all, he is an American.