Sandy shows shared positive spirit
“Men work together,” I told him from my heart, “whether they work together or apart.” - Robert Frost, "The Tuft of Flowers"
Frost's famous poem uses the shared but isolated experience of appreciating a flower's beauty to illustrate the essential truth of this often bewildering experience called life. That essential truth is the kinship that exists between each and every one of us. The tie that binds.
For the past two weeks we have been witnessing another shared experience - dealing with the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. In this case it was not the beauty of a flower that brought us together, but rather the dire needs of others and the knowledge that only by good fortune were we spared the devastation still plaguing our brothers and sisters in New Jersey and New York.
Many Cape Region individuals and organizations sprang into action in the days following the storm's departure as images of the devastation filled screens and papers. People loaded trucks with needed supplies and drove them north. They wrote checks to reinforce the efforts of the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. And they organized fundraisers to bring the community together for the shared effort of helping others.
Many of those efforts included people of all ages, old and young, with the young learning by example from the older ones around them. An article in this edition of the Cape Gazette details many of those efforts, some of them ongoing. No doubt there will be others in the weeks ahead that have not even yet taken form.
Irene last year, on the heels of a rare earthquake, and along with a damaging tornado, and Sandy this year, all serve as sobering reminders of the power of nature that can damage our vulnerable coastal area. Both Irene and Sandy did damage to our area, but nothing to the extent that we would have experienced had Sandy tracked just a handful of miles farther south.
We need, of course, to continue to prepare for powerful storms, and continue to send help to our kindred spirits in harder-hit areas. By helping others in need, we help ourselves, now and in the future.
