Trying To Empty A Lake Using An Eyedropper

I received an e-mail this morning from a friend who said that sending her two bags of toiletries to the hurricane Katrina victims was like trying to empty a lake using an eyedropper. I think we all feel that way, to a degree. I sit and watch report after report of the horrendous aftermath of this storm on these people, and I think we all tend to feel helpless.

Katrina has and will continue to impact our lives in ways we've only begun to see. I thought about all the catastrophes in our country over the past 200 years, starting with the founding of our nation. The impact that had on native Americans, and then the Revolutionary War. The Civil War, many years later, changed us in ways we still feel today. The stories of the depression my grandma told were horrific in themselves. For me, the Vietnam war and 9/11 had a huge impact. As a mother of a Marine, our boys are fighting and dying in heat and conditions RIGHT NOW we can't imagine. Now, this. Can we pull together, once again? I once heard that the mothers of the world should get together and bring peace. Maybe there's some truth to that.

Sorry, don't mean to bring us down here, but I think sometimes we need to take a look at the past, realize ... we've been through shit before. We can get through this. No matter how you feel about Bush, or the Mayor of New Orleans, that really doesn't matter in the end. What matters is that we find our American spirit. I believe it's part of our DNA, if you're an American.

But like my dear friend said to me, "maybe if we all used an eye dropper, we could eventually empty that lake."

Blessings to you and yours.