About Irene

About Irene
It’s only about a week since we had to pack up and move to a neighbors home on higher ground. As a friend from Connecticut upon visiting said, “you don’t live by the water you live in it.” Some truth to that especially when the storm season is upon us. Like now.

Our most critical problem in the hurricane season is the anticipation. It is raised to frenzied heights by the broadcast media. To make sure they scare the life out of you they show you all the destruction brought on by previous hurricanes, And in case you didn’t notice the Weather Channels commercials time doubles triples during these emergencies. (More people are watching and being scared.)

I think it was Heidigger who suggested that anxiety is created by anticipation. Indeed it is and so by the time the storm arrives you are spent like an old wrong out mop. I have rediscovered an old problem of writing about the past. The problem may increase with time but here it is. As I write about what happened a week or ten days ago am I writing as I am in it? Or how I am remembering it? Or put another way. Is that of it? Or about it? Believe me these are not the same thing.

I learned this lesson while writing “Wasn’t That A Time.” There I was trying to reconstruct time that was 60 years old. How do you do that? You are required to re-imagine what happened. It is in that process you are consciously or otherwise interpreting what happened. That is very different from live reporting in the time it is happening. I now have had time to think about the incident and like it or not I color it.

Okay we are 24 hours away from the hurricane strike. We start to pack up. What to take what to leave? You walk around the house looking at each thing knowing your not going to take any of it. Maybe you are saying goodbyes to many objects of affection that have sweet memories tucked away inside. You end up with your medicines, change of clothes and the guitar. Our pictures, a few original oils were carried off to safety by a dear friend. We leave with a heavy heart and not a clue of what nature intends.

I know in my gut that people younger than me are in a terrible fear for their future. I know from the experience of others that a total loss of your home is as traumatic as losing a major piece of your life. Oh, sure I know we are not supposed to get attached to stuff. That may not apply to stuff that has become part of your self. These are things that have meaning far far beyond the thing itself. My guitar is a good example. It has given me some of the happiest moments of my long life and I love it. Could it be replaced? Well of course but the new one wouldn’t have my spit marks all over it. I have the same feelings about some of my books and my wood-shop tools.

We said goodbye to the house and went up the road to higher ground. Spent a nice evening with our local friends and others they had rescued from around the Island. We slept through the storm and the next day bright and sunny went to look how our little house stood the storm. Lo, and behold there it was muddy all around but unscathed. We spent the day shoveling mud and being happy that we still had a home. Kate was quick to get at rescuing the garden that had been inundated with salt water the enemy of plants.

That’s my memory of our siege through hurricane Irene. I am very glad the hurricane Katia is going far east of us. But there not through with us yet. Not until October. In the meantime we are wondering why do we live here? Is it because today as I write this and look out the window it is breath taking beautiful.