Sunday, September 04, 2005

Katrina

This is my chance to write something truly insightful about a horrible tragedy.

Not gonna happen. I haven't wrapped my brain around what happened last week. I can't wrap my brain around what is happening this week.

The scope of the disaster is really more than I fathom. My home is in Houston, I've treated patients from New Orleans and I've seen the Dome. None of that matters. I just can't picture it.

Which is weird.

When the Twin Towers fell, I could connect the images on TV to images in my reality. I can't pull the pictures from New Orleans or the pictures of thousands arriving at the Dome together with my worldview. Somehow, in my head, Lafite's is still underlit, leaning sideways and open for a beer. The Bourbon Orleans still presides with majestic splendor over Bourbon St. while offering some of the finest accomidations in the Crescent City. The trolley still trundles towards Tulane and drunken collegiates.

But my head is wrong. My intellect fully understands that thousands are displaced and an entire culture has been devastated.

My heart just won't believe.

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