But there was more comfort to be found than even that which traditional wisdom could provide because, of course, we were alive and able to tell the tale with only material but not mortal damage to cope with. My children played happily by candlelight, and they could probably use the break from their regular routines and television anyway. My daughter followed the same schedule she always had…11 month olds are amazingly strict to their schedules, and my 2 and a half years old happily played imaginative games with and without toys. My cousin seemed happy in the chaos bringing order and using every available tool at his disposal from the considerable handyman’s armory that my grandfather had spent his life in America assembling. Finally, the day had come when every conceivable tool could be used. I’m sure in no time at all the handy gadget for plugging into the phone wires could also be utilized. And through it all I just observe and try to place the whole event into words…but the ego of the writer is embedded in the observation and it is difficult to pull the personal experience from the objective. After all I’m no journalist…and journalists these days aren’t either. The objective perspective on this event probably won’t be found for a long time, the historical context will probably lump into the category of an Andrew or a Katrina but Sandy will have her own distinction as having brought New York City to its knees–a feat only rarely accomplished and always recognized globally.
Meanwhile the politicians pontificate about the long haul back to recovery and the years of rebuilding it will take. I just wait patiently for electricity in my house so that I can use the stove…at the moment in particular rebuilding the Jersey Shore’s Ferris Wheel seems like a decadent luxury that might be bringing comfort to New Jersey residents able to watch the news on TV, just as Mayor Bloomberg’s statement that he is convinced that global warming and climate change is a serious problem (it is) while people are scared to drink faucet water due to sewage seems premature. The future will be bold and beautiful but right then people needed to know when the lights and heat would be coming back on. People were emotionally exhausted and physically running on empty. But New York, and by extension the metropolitan area, people are at their best when circumstances are at their worst. Governor Cuomo pointed that out; it just is little inspiration in the moment found. Looking forward one can only hope that the devastation can be used as a spring board for some greater progress as opposed to some terrible downward spiral.
